Heroes Without The Hammer
by Dark Freddie
Summary: When the battle around Earth is raging and Master Chief is off doing his heroics on Delta Halo, there are a few heroes without the training and armor of a spartan who are forging history of their own.
1. Good Old Fashioned Helljumpers

UNSC ship "_Prime Meridian_"

Above Earth

Engaged with Covenant Forces.

The UNSC ship, the _Prime Meridian,_ no longer drifted close to Earth by any means, its engines having been disabled by a landing party from the covenant ship with which they were currently battling. Captain Laura North pulled a tactically brilliant move by taking advantage of the Covenant plasma weapons to shoot Archer missiles straight through the Covenant shield just as it dropped around the turrets when the turrets were ready to fire. She didn't know that the famous Spartan 117, rank of Master Chief Petty Officer, had already performed such a maneuver. The blasts had crippled all of the turrets on that side the Covenant ship. The resulting magnetic shock from the exploding plasma coils managed to knock out the plasma turrets along the other side of the ship as well. With a good part of the ship decompressing explosively due to a large hole in the side of the covenant ship caused by the MAC round that had gone through the hull of the enemy vessel and the plasma turrets offline, Captain North had hoped that the Covenant ship was disabled enough to disengage. This was proven impossible when a Covenant landing party consisting of 5 grunts, 3 jackals, and an elite disengaged their active cloak in engineering on the UNSC ship. They swiftly killed the main engineering techs and disabled the ship's engines. Since then a bloody battle has broken out in the engineering section and surrounding hallways of the _Prime Meridian_.

"Damn these Covvie bastards just don't stop coming!" Dune Shouted.

Dune was an ODST, or orbital drop shock trooper, part of a group more commonly known as helljumpers. His brown hair had defied the 1-inch length regulation since his promotion to Sergeant. It actually defied it to the extent that his hair was actually 5 inches long and he was afraid if he was to report to anyone in command who really cared, he would face more than a demotion for it. He and Private Rick Hunt fired wildly into a group of grunts that had formed in the hallway around the cryo-chambers with their battle rifles. The chambers were empty except for a stockpile of munitions some fleeing techies had managed to smuggle out from random arms depots around engineering. The weapons would be needed to take back engineering, and this was the closest front between the human held areas and the covenant held area.

"Gotta give the splitchins justice though, if we had people who could motivate these grunts to kill themselves like this we'd be kickin Covenant ass back to Harvest." Rick replied.

"Fire in the hole!" Giles yelled from behind as a grenade streaked through the air towards the oncoming flood of grunts as well as two elites who had joined the fray.

Private First Class Allison Giles, another ODST under Sergeant Arthur Dune's control, wasn't very tall, but the saying that true evil came in small packages was true in this brown headed female helljumper. Sergeant Dune had never seen such a demonic representation of enjoying battle in anyone before. She enjoyed a good conflict more than elites. She loved nothing more than tossing grenades and using Covenant plasma weapons on the poor Covenant soldiers from whom she took them. Her records showed she had been treated for Boren's Syndrome multiple times throughout her years of service due to her constant use of plasma weapons. The frag grenade exploded taking out the whole hoard of Covenant and buying the ODST team a bit of time to relax.

"Damn!" Rick yelled as he fed a fresh clip into his battle rifle, "I'm fucking glad you're on our side, those Covvie bastards didn't know what hit em!"

"Simmer down." Dune said, "We don't need you putting off a clip into a bulkhead, the Covvies are doing a decent enough job of destroying the ship."

Giles looked over a plasma rifle that she had confiscated from the remains of an elite. The somewhat malicious smile playing across her face was indicative of the fact that she enjoyed the weight of the weapon.

"I love these things; they burn flesh and make such a good smell." She chuckled. "Damn fun to know your slowly burning the flesh off of the enemy and causing them excruciating pain in the process."

Sergeant Dune shook his head. He had always wondered why he was put with a bunch of nuts like these people. They weren't normal by a long shot, even for ODSTs. He did trust them though. He knew they were good at what they did, and that was jumping in feet first, and killing every Covenant bastard between them and their LZ on the way. He looked over at Rick. He had known the crazy bastard for quite a while. In fact he and Rick went through boot camp together. The thing keeping Rick from any form of promotion had been his lack of tactics in battle. His ongoing battle plan in every situation was to run in and kill everything. If it weren't for Dune, Rick would have managed to kill himself long before today. Rick and Giles weren't the only members of his group though.

"I wonder…" Dune mused to himself.

Two seconds before he could finish his thought the doors to the cryo-room burst open to reveal nothing but thin air. Suddenly the air shimmered and an elite roared, poising a plasma grenade, getting ready to prep it and throw.

"Fuck!" Rick yelled as the others in the small group of helljumpers said or thought the same thing.

He dashed for the elite, not thinking. Just as he got within inches of the elite, it dropped the still unprimed grenade and grabbed Rick by the throat. It began to squeeze and roar something incomprehensible at the now suffocating helljumper. Suddenly the elite's head exploded and bits of the elites purple blood, bone, flesh, and brain matter flecked Rick's face. A vapor trail from an S2 sniper rifle trailed down the hallway to the medium sized black haired Corporal ODST who had fired the armor piercing round past the elite's shield and straight into the alien's now missing head.

"Hey, looks like I came just in time to save your ass again, Rick." Corporal Mike Wolowicz said.

He walked down the hallway to lay a hand on the now moist helljumper whose life he had just saved.

"Ya gonna live? Or do I need to call a med team down here?" Mike chuckled.

"Good shot Corporal." Dune commented.

Dune appreciated Wolowicz the most, his crack aim made him invaluable in any combat situation. People who knew him sometimes even joked that he could out snipe a Spartan if need be. The theory had never been tested but the Sergeant could only speculate at the true sniping capabilities of a Spartan so he couldn't know for sure. Mike shouldered his S2 and smirked.

"Got to the bridge and got the orders." Corporal Wolowicz reported as he sat next to Dune.

It was unheard of to show a superior officer the proper respect on a battlefield. That would just make him a target for any enemies. Even their ship had now been made a battlefield.

"Com-lines cut and radios jammed, Covvies are making this one hell of an annoying fight." Giles commented, showing no actual concern for the situation.

Hunt rejoined the group and wiped the elite bits from his face. Dune looked over at Wolowicz.

"Well spit em out corporal," Arthur said impatiently, "The Covvies aren't going to sit around waiting for us to finish up having our little tea party."

"Well," Wolowicz reported, "Captain North said that we need to take these munitions," he pointed at the stockpile of every gun a UNSC ship could possibly hold, "and go restart the engines, and that's where this guy comes in."

That was the cue for one Ian Flynn to enter the room. Ian was a techie. To be blunt he was actually a warrant officer. He was constantly involved with this particular helljumper group though, seeing as Flynn and Wolowicz had a tendency to ask the higher-ups to be put on suicide missions together. If he could, Flynn would have joined the ODSTs a long while back.

"You again," Dune muttered. "We just can't seem to get rid of you can we?"

Dune contemplated the idea of sending a few rounds from the battle rifle through Warrant Officer Flynn. His involvement in sorties of this kind only seemed to help them turn from dangerous to worse.

Flynn smirked and said, "Hey, we can't all have what we want, just a select few of us."

Sergeant Dune didn't appreciate the remark, but he was aware that Ian knew his way around a computer console or two, and he wasn't new to weapons either, which made him an asset in battle as well. His aim was great for a techie, even if he was a swabbie.

"Well then," Rick said, "Let's get goin, I don't like to leave my fans waiting."

Dune picked up a battle rifle and shouldered a shotgun, packing away a few more clips of ammunition along with some shells and a strap holding 4 frag grenades. Rick grabbed a jackhammer rocket launcher, shouldered it, and grabbed twin SMG's, some clips, and a sling of grenades. Allison grabbed an SMG and the plasma rifles from two of the now dead elites. She inspected the lustrous purple weapons and picked up some plasma grenades. Ian looked around and found a battle rifle and two magnums. Wolowicz grabbed a couple clips for his sniper rifle and his specially designed pistol that was equipped with a scope with a maximum magnification of 2x.

"Saddle up helljumpers," Sergeant Dune said, "and lock and load, cause we're about to make some fireworks."


	2. When One Cryo Bay Just Isnt Enough

UNSC Ship _Prime Meridian_

Above Earth

Currently fighting Covenant on ship

Engines Disabled, In-Ship Com Disabled, Radio Jammed

Dune fired his battle rifle down the hallway at the unsuspecting elite who didn't know his life was about to be taken. The three bullets ripped through his unshielded skull from behind. The other two elites turned on their shields, seeing their friend's brain splattered across the human bulkhead. Their heads suddenly exploded as twin vapor trails from an S2 sniper rifle filled the air where their heads used to be. The group continued down the corridor.

"Damn, those shots were kind of off. I need to fix my sight." Wolowicz said, fiddling with a dial on his sniper rifle.

"Looked like a good shot to me." Rick commented, slightly out of breath from running with a rocket launcher on his back.

"Sure it did to you, but your idea of aiming is closing your eyes and pulling the trigger." Mike chuckled.

The group came up to a doorway with a red arrow on the floor before it. On the arrow was the word "ENGINEERING" clearly printed in bold white lettering. Dune didn't like how easy it had been to get this far. Granted, they were a bunch of helljumpers, and one swabbie, and they had mopped up a large number of Covenant when they were still at the cryo-bay but it had still been too easy to get to engineering. If it was the only Covenant held stronghold on the ship, and their own ship was disabled, why would they be so lax in protecting it?

"I don't like this…" Ian muttered.

"I know, it was too easy to get here, gotta be a trap." Dune agreed.

"Trap or not, lets go kick some alien ass!" Giles yelled, barging in through the door.

"Dammit Giles!" Dune yelled.

Suddenly a wall of plasma fire poured through the door. It crackled through the air as the small group jumped out of the way. Giles backed out of the door, holding a now blacked part of her shoulder. Dune looked at Hunt.

"Send a 102mm warning shot through there, minus the warning."

Rick nodded, he slung his SMG's around his free shoulder and he whipped the rocket launcher off of his shoulder and sent a 102mm high explosive jackhammer missile through the door. The rocket or the resulting explosion had hit something because a number of throated elite cries of pain echoed through the corridor. The plasma barrage stopped and Dune looked at Giles' shoulder.

"That doesn't look good, but it's only a flesh wound." Dune looked at the others. "Rick, keep watch on that door, if anything inhuman comes into view, I don't want it to live past the doorway. Ian and Mike, keep your asses looking down either side of the hallway."

Ian, Mike, and Rick all took their posts. Dune pulled a med-pack out of his pack and began to treat Allison's wound.

"It's not deep enough to worry about," Dune commented, "but it needs to be cleaned and dressed, and keep heavy weapons out of that hand."

Dune handed her a bandage. "Put it on yourself." Dune turned and looked through the door with Rick.

He could see the shadows and shimmers of a few camouflaged elites and a couple hidden grunts, not much opposition waiting in the room. They obviously knew they wouldn't want another rocket salvo through the door, so they held fire. It appeared to him that they were going to try to catch them in a crossfire situation. Jackals with their shields off hid on the catwalks above, elites hid behind consoles, and some grunts were on either side of the door, barely holding their fire from fear. He only knew the grunts were there because they lacked one of the most crucial abilities of a soldier. They couldn't shut up. The high pitched chattering ran through their helmets and translated in their ears. The grunts mumbled something about the elites forcing them to their doom. He noted the holy reference the grunts used to refer to the elites that was edited out by the translator. He knew that the elites were holy to the lower races, and that grunts were cowardly without them. He looked around once more, trying to count the number of elites. There weren't many left. Most of them had died trying to pick a straight on fight with them. He couldn't get a definite number due to the fact that quite a few of them were only definable by the shimmering of their active camouflage. Suddenly a clink was heard as Giles tried to pick up a plasma rifle with her injured left arm, which was now bandaged.

"I told you, no heavy weapons in that arm," Dune said to her, "you're gonna have to deal with just one."

Giles nodded and cursed a bit under her breath. She picked up the plasma rifle with the biggest charge in her good arm and grabbed a plasma grenade with her left. She put it in a position for an easy prep and throw. Dune looked into the room one more time, going over his roughly formulated plan in his mind.

"Rick, on my signal, I want you to launch your last rocket onto that catwalk," Dune spoke without even looking at his men, one of his more creepy traits, he wouldn't take his eye off of the goal before a mission, and now, engineering was his goal, "then ditch the jackhammer, and make your way to the nearest console over there," Dune pointed to a console, "and take cover behind it. Ian, you're with Hunt. Giles get ready with me, we're gonna chuck some grenades on either side of this door and take out the grunts and then you're gonna follow me to the console adjacent to the one Hunt and Flynn are headed to. Wolowicz, you're on cover fire."

Dune nodded to Allison as he took a grenade from his belt. He got on the right side of the door and Giles took the left. Dune tapped the barrel of his battle rifle on the bulkhead three times. This was a code for him and his men. The first tap was _ready_ the second was _set_ and the third was _go_. On the second tap both he and Giles prepped their grenades. On the third they chucked them through the door. They both ducked back behind the door frame. After the twin explosions Giles and Dune ran for a console. Plasma fire raced about them.

"Now!" Dune yelled.

Rick rounded the doorframe and launched a rocket up onto the catwalks, ceasing the plasma fire from the jackals above. Then he and Ian ran toward the console next to Dune and Giles' console. Vapor trails arched through the air and took down elites and whatever else had been left alive from the initial barrage. Dune grabbed a grenade from his belt and looked at Giles and Rick. They got the idea. As he prepped and threw his grenade the others did the same. A few elites could be heard yelling behind the consoles. Everything went silent for a moment. Dune motioned a finger back and forth across his eye, a hand signal, towards Mike, asking if he had any contacts. Mike motioned back with a flat hand at belt level that quickly retreated to his gun, all clear.

"Good," Dune said, standing up and looking around. "Rick, escort Ian around to where he needs to be, Allison, you police Covvie weapons. Mike, keep an eye on the door. Everyone be careful, there could be more hiding."

Wolowicz walked into the door and turned a 180 while shouldering his sniper rifle while pulling out his handgun. Rick and Ian went up a catwalk to get to the necessary computers. Allison proceeded to go around like a child in a candy store on allowance day picking up covenant weapons. Dune walked around kicking dead bodies to make sure no one was playing dead. He proceeded to move the bodies, piling them in the middle of engineering. After about 20 minutes of walking around policing dead bodies and looking for living Covenant he shouted to Ian up on the catwalks above.

"How much longer?" Dune asked.

"One more second…" Ian answered absent mindedly, not looking up from the console he was working with, "There we go! Engines fixed and the in ship com should be operational again," Flynn shot up excited at his own success.

"Hey what's this?" Giles asked pointing to a box made of the purple metal the Covenant seemed to enjoy using in everything.

"Don't touch it yet!" Ian yelled down.

Flynn scurried down and looked it over, popping off a panel or two and looking at the circuitry.

"Probably what the Covies were using to jam our radio," Ian surmised.

"Frag it," Dune said.

Ian got out of the way as Giles set a plasma grenade on it and ducked behind a bulkhead. With a blue and white explosion the small box was blown to shards. Dune hit his radio and tuned it to the bridge frequency.

"Captain, engines fixed, and the radio and in-ship com are up and running." Dune reported.

"Good," Captain Laura North's voice replied. "Sergeant, strap yourselves in, the Covenant ship is going to jump, and we're following."

"Understood," Dune replied, "Your heard the lady helljumpers, get ready, because we're moving."


	3. Is the Captains Chair First Class?

UNSC Ship _Prime Meridian_

Above Earth

Conflict with Covenant on Ship Over

Prepping for Hyperspace Jump

"What are they planning on doing?" Captain North wondered aloud to herself.

She was a shorter woman, but she commanded a fair amount of respect with her crew. She wasn't intimidating and couldn't scare someone through brute strength, but in tactical situations she was a genius. It was rumored that no one, aside from the ever famous Spartan IIs, had ever passed her score on the tactical tests. It was, in fact, the only thing keeping her in the captain's chair.

"Sir, everyone's ready for jump, and their subspace rift is open and they're moving through," reported Lieutenant Warner, a member of the bridge crew.

"Are there any other Covenant ships getting ready to jump?" the captain asked.

"Negative, sir," Warner reported.

"Good, follow them through." North said calmly, trying to strategize the situation.

It didn't make any sense to her as to why a Covenant ship would run away. They prided themselves on performance in battle. No respectable elite would ever order themselves out of battle to save their own lives, they would gladly sacrifice themselves for their pride. The only way a covenant ship would retreat is if they had some tactical reason for doing so. They must be going somewhere important, so if there's a chance that they could find out what it is, they could follow, jump back to Earth and possibly get a chance at a pre-emptive strike at the Covenant for once. They would have to be careful though, this was an insanely dangerous undertaking. The only reason Laura was even considering it was because this was the only Covenant ship getting ready to jump, and if it did, the _Meridian_ would be left mostly crippled from the fight and left as nothing more than fodder for the other ships in the area to pick off as they retreated, or progressed on, depending on how the rest of the battle went. She didn't like the idea of dying without accomplishing something, so she was going to follow.

"We're going through, sir," Warner reported, and soon, their windows were filled with the blankness of subspace.

"How long do you estimate we're going to be in this jump?" North inquired.

"No clue, sir. We're probably going to just have to wait and see."

"Alright, I want everyone ready for this jump to end at any given second, but otherwise, I want the ODST teams to patrol and mop up any Covenant forces that may be left. I want something left behind to interrogate though."

North flipped the radio on her side console on and spoke into it.

"Dune, get your team together. I want you to patrol the cargo bays."

"Understood captain," crackled back across the radio

Captain North turned the radio off.

"Now it's just time to wait and see where this ship leads us."

She knew it was borderline suicidal to be chasing after a covenant ship, but it was heavily damaged and if worse came to worse she could always jump back to Earth before being destroyed. The Cole Protocol wasn't something to necessarily be worried about now, Earth's position had been found. They had to do what they could to make sure Earth didn't fall. She wasn't happy about leaving Earth in it's time of need, but she knew that if left behind, there was nothing she could do to help but get blown out of the sky. Her ship was too heavily damaged to engage another Covenant ship that wasn't almost dead in the water. Aside from that, another possible reason why the ship may have retreated crossed her mind suddenly. There was the chance that a prophet was on board the enemy ship. Prophets are the religious leaders of the Covenant, and if one was captured it would be a huge strategic advantage to the UNSC, more than worth losing one almost crippled ship from Earth's defensive battle. She only hoped that back home, the fight would go well enough that she wouldn't be the only UNSC ship left from Earth when she returned.

_No,_ she thought to herself, _No, we have something too important to lose this time. The UNSC won't let Earth turn into another Reach. We won't lose this battle. I just have to do what is in the best interest of Earth. Staying and dying isn't it. We need some leverage in this fight, and if nothing else, we might be able to get the Covenant to leave Earth for the time being by holding the prophet hostage. I'm doing the right thing._


	4. Losing a Few Fingers In a Cargo Bay

UNSC Ship _Prime Meridian_

In Subspace, Pursuing Covenant Ship

"Alright marines, get out of the drop pods," Dune shouted, banging the nose of his battle rifle on the walls of the drop pods.

The ODSTs got out of their pods one at a time.

"What's up Searge, what are our orders?" Wolowicz inquired looking at Dune.

"And why in the world are we chasing after a Covenant ship?" Ian added in, with slight irritation.

"Yeah, that doesn't seem to be the smartest thing in the world to do," Hunt agreed, rubbing his head as he stepped out of his drop pod.

"I have no idea," Dune admitted, "but you know how the captain is. She knows what she's doing. What we need to worry about is getting to the cargo bay. While we're in subspace we're supposed to be down there patrolling for any Covvie bastards that might still be hiding onboard,"

"So that means we're meeting up with Davis right?" Giles said with a slight annoyed tone being hid behind the joy she held towards the prospect of running into more Covenant.

"Yeah," Dune said slightly exasperated, "She was helping out some swabbies down there, so we'll be meeting up with her."

They all began to walk down the corridors leading to the cargo bay, with their weapons at the ready. Each of them was ready for an elite to hop out from behind a doorway at any given moment. If an onlooker didn't know the training an ODST went through, particularly this band, they would have never guessed that they would have been any semblance of ready, however. They trotted along at an average pace, with guns at their hips, except for Mike, who carried his S2 at eye level, looking in the scope. He spent a large amount of time learning how to run with his rifle at the ready. It has been rumored that even traipsing long at a good speed he could still nail an elite between the eyes from the max distance that an S2 scope would show. He made a point to try to push his limits of sniping at any given opportunity, but this theory had never been tested. Right now, the team was just worried about his abilities in close range sniping, which at the current moment, had proven to be superb. Soon they came up to the doors leading to the cargo bay. While the rest of the team looked down either end of the corridor, considering the area potentially still hot with contacts, Dune tried to thumb the door open. It didn't work. He looked around and realized why.

"Damn, they locked the door down to keep out any more Covvies," Dune cursed, "This is going to take a second to override, Flynn, get on it, Giles watch with me this way, Wolowicz and Hunt get the other."

They did as he ordered and Ian went to the console at the side of the door and began to fiddle with it. The ODSTs watched impatiently towards either end of the corridor, not wanting to get flanked and trapped by a couple of elites who saw the situation as an opportunity to easily take out a few humans. All of them kept their eyes peeled, they knew there was a reason this door was locked. Suddenly they heard a sparking noise and the sound of a door sliding open.

"Got it!" Flynn shouted happily just as a shot of charged plasma shot right above Hunt's head.

"Shit!" Rick screamed ducking and firing his SMGs randomly in the direction the shot came from.

The sound of a grunt screaming and dropping was heard, followed by the familiar sound of and elite yelling "Wort wort wort!" As soon as the grunt that fired the initial shot had died two elites rounded either end of the corridor and opened fire with dual plasma rifles on the trapped ODST's.

"Through the door!" Dune barked.

Before Dune had even gotten the order completely out he and his team had already gone through the door into the expansive cargo bay. Quickly thumbing the door shut behind them, hoping to buy a few needed seconds, Dune began to run across the bay towards a pile of cargo crates.

"Get over here and take cover!" Dune ordered as he skidded to a halt beside them and herded the rest of the group behind the crates.

Soon the entire group was hiding behind the crates except Dune, who dove behind them just as a plasma burst crackled through where he had just been previously standing. The four elites filed through the door, covering the crates with varied bursts of alternating plasma fire, which is all the team could see before ducking behind the crates before getting fried with the ensuing plasma fire.

"Shit!" Rick yelled, "how the hell are we supposed to shoot back?"

"That's the idea you idiot," Wolowicz shot back at him, "It's hard to die when you aren't getting shot at."

"Quite the chatter," Dune yelled, "Giles, Hunt, send some grenades over."

As he finished the order, he, Allison, and Rick lobbed grenades over the crates and heard the sound of a couple of frags and a plasma grenade going off, followed by a cease in the plasma fire.

"Mike, go!" Dune ordered.

Wolowicz shot up suddenly with his S2 at the ready and suddenly four shots were heard going off. Just as soon as the shots went off they heard the sound of two elites yelling, a jackal screaming in pain and a grunt dropping. Mike shot down again right before searing plasma scorched the air where he had just been.

"How many are left?" Dune asked quickly just as Mike got back behind cover.

"Two elites, and a jackal are all that's left," Mike reported.

Just then a plasma grenade streaked overhead and landed on some barrels that were sitting opposite of them.

"Cover!" Dune yelled.

Just as they all covered their heads the grenade went off sending the barrels flying.

"Damn it, we need to finish this!" Dune yelled in frustration.

Just as soon as he said it, Giles shot up really quickly, taking advantage of a momentary break in the plasma fire to chuck her last plasma grenade. It stuck to the jackal who began to run around screaming. Just then Giles ducked down.

"Cover!" she screamed.

Just then the stuck jackal went flying over head, thrown by one of the elites and exploded in mid air above them. Before they could respond in any way the cover fire started up again, keeping them down.

"How much ammo can they have left in those things?" Ian yelled, obviously irritated at the situation.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a warthog starting up down the cargo bay, accompanied by the sound of screeching tires. The plasma fire turned from them for the moment and they suddenly heard the elites yelling in pain before they were cut off by the sound of a crash. A barrel flew overhead and landed just beyond them. After a quick hand sign telling the rest of the team to stand down, Dune stood up slowly, his battle rifle at the ready.

"Hey hot stuff, need a ride?" inquired Lance Corporal Shayla Davis.

Shayla was a bit of a wildcard in their unit. She was the medic, but she could fire weapons and was trained in the operation of almost any vehicle that the UNSC had access to. Her shorter length blond hair barely met the regulation for length for women, in fact defying it by a half an inch. She had feelings for Dune, which he didn't reciprocate as far as anyone knew.

"Davis," Dune said sighing in an exasperated tone.

"Davis!" Ian yelled standing up hurriedly and rushing towards her, "As beautiful as always my lovely."

"That's nice, Flynn," she said, dismounting the warthog and walking straight past Ian towards Dune.

"Davis," Giles said coldly, standing up, "good job."

"Yeah no kidding," Rick said, referencing the elites who now more closely looked like purple skid marks than sentient alien entities.

"Nice to see you as always," she said to her CO, ignoring all the others.

"Good timing," Dune said, not even trying to hide the exasperation in his voice.

"So what are you all doing down here?" she said, glancing around and motioning for the naval officers to come out of hiding now that the fight was over.

"Our orders are to patrol down here for any Covenant still left on board," Dune replied looking around, "and Giles could use a little help more properly treating a shoulder wound she got."

"I'm fine," Giles said coldly.

"She get hurt rushing into combat again?" Davis asked in a tone that broadcasted a lack of caring to all present.

There was come confliction between Giles and Davis. No one quite knew what it was, but they didn't get along very well. They never actively got into a fight, and they both followed orders to a T, even if it meant working together, but the conflict remained none the less.

"Help out Giles, and you let her," he said to Allison, "that's an order. The rest of us are going to start patrolling down here, though I think we already found your infestation."

He pointed with his battle rifle to the road kill underneath the warthog.

"Davis once you're done with Giles, make sure none of the swabbies are hurt, Flynn and Wolowicz, keep an eye on the door. Giles, you're going to help Davis once you're done getting patched up. Rick, you're on general patrol with me," Dune said.

As they went about their assigned tasks suddenly the in-ship com snapped on.

"Everyone brace for the jump to end, we're about to hit real space again," Captain North reported.

"Well, looks like we're finally going to get to figure out where we're going," Ian said to himself.


	5. Steward, Can I Get Some Aspirin?

UNSC Ship _Prime Meridian_

Emerging from Hyperspace: Coordinates Unknown

The entire bridge crew jolted as they hit normal space once again. Captain North looked around the windows and monitors she had access to, trying to see where they were.

"Status," Laura said trying to act as though this was all a routine procedure.

"No new damage showing up sir," Reported their systems engineer on the bridge, Ensign Lair.

"How about a position, we have any idea where we are?" the captain asked.

"No idea just yet sir, the computer's taking its sweet time trying to get our coordinates," Warner responded, keeping his eyes on his console.

"What about the Covenant Ship?" North asked with a thinly concealed amount of concern.

"It seems they're trying to get away sir, but not jumping again. Sensors indicate they have some fires spreading through their ship. Good chance that knocked out their ability to."

"Alright, where are they limping to?" She asked, no longer fearing much of a fight.

"It seems there's a structure of some type they're heading for. Long range sensors don't pick up any life signs, Covenant or otherwise," Warner reported.

"Get me a visual," North ordered.

"Yes sir," Warner replied.

Suddenly on a screen above Warner's console a picture of a large oddly shaped structure that resembled a space station appeared in the blackness of space, apparently not orbiting anything in particular. It looked something like an asteroid had been terra-formed. There was a large structure dominating most of what appeared to be the habitable surface of the asteroid.

"Is it habitable at all?" Laura asked.

"It seems so sir," Warner replied, "seems to have an atmosphere composed of mostly of nitrogen, oxygen, and water, just like Earth."

"Well, lets try to," North was suddenly cut off by their communications officer, Ensign Chanlain.

"Sir," Chanlain reported with a sense of urgency in his voice, "the Covenant are broadcasting on unencrypted channels."

"Is it through the translator yet?" North inquired quickly.

"Not yet sir, it's taking a second," Chanlain reported.

A quiet moment passed. Captain North, watching the screen which now displayed the Covenant ship heading towards the odd asteroid at its slow limping pace, was tense.

"We've got it sir," Chanlain said.

"Patch it through to my console," Laura ordered.

"Patched through sir."

As soon as the ready signal flashed on her console Captain North hit the play button and let the announcement play loud enough for her bridge crew to hear.

"We have been chased, my followers, by this insignificant human speck to this holy place. We are currently no match for them in the air, which is a blow to our pride as noble warriors. As your prophet I will not stand for this. We will land on the holy relic as its holy defenders from this human scourge. We will stop them from destroying this holy relic as they did with the first sacred ring. We must sacrifice our pride to do so, but we will defend this holy place to the last noble warrior."

The transmission cut off and silence took over the bridge for the moment. Laura thought over the options for a second, not wanting to do anything hasty

_We could blow them out of the sky, or try to disable them, but past attempts at disabling a Covenant ship has proven to be all but impossible. They have a tendency to blow themselves up if they lose, and knowing they can't protect this structure if they can't get to it, it's likely they'll blow themselves up,_ North thought to herself.

Her concentration was broken when one of her officers spoke.

"Orders sir?" Warner asked, bewilderment seeping through his voice.

The man was obviously afraid of dying out in uncharted space, as they all were. This had to be played out carefully, and Laura knew that, but they had to do something, now, before their chance to do anything had been lost.

"Follow them, keeping a decent distance from them, and keep trying to figure out where we are. I want to be able to jump home when we're done here," She ordered.

"Yes sir," Warner said, going about performing his new orders.

_Even if they're likely to blow themselves up, a holy place for them that a prophet is willing to sacrifice himself for would probably be an even more effective bargaining chip against that Covenant that the prophet himself._

"Alright, change of plans," North said abruptly, "get within weapons range."

_We came all this way just to blow them up?_ Warner thought to himself.

"Yes sir," he said, a bit of hesitation obvious in his voice, going about his duties.

The distance between the two ships closed quickly enough. The _Prime Meridian_ had full engine capability still, and the Covenant ship was limping pretty badly from their previous engagement.

"How's our MAC gun?" the captain asked.

"Good sir," replied their tactical officer, Lieutenant Locke, "we're good for a few more shots."

"How about archers?" she asked.

"We only have about 5 left, sir," Locke reported.

"Queue them up to fire separately, if we're lucky we won't need them," Laura said, "ready the MAC gun and tell me when it's ready to be fired."

"Aye sir," Locke reported, a smile creeping across his face.

The distance between the two ships closed a bit more.

"How's the enemy ship look?" Laura asked, her tone getting somewhat flat.

She knew that as a military officer, especially in these turbulent times, fighting was part of the job, but she still didn't like the idea. Inside, lurking in her mind was the fear of doing something wrong and losing some of her crew, or worse, the entire ship.

"Looks like its shields and weapons are still down sir." Warner replied.

A few anxious seconds passed as the distance between the two ships dwindled further.

"MAC gun charged sir," Locke said, breaking the growing tension on board the bridge.

"Alright, fire."

Suddenly a gigantic mass flew from the barrel of the MAC gun aboard the _Meridian_. The massive round struck the back of the Covenant ship and tore through the decks. Atmosphere began to vent from the newly formed hole in the rear of the ship right before emergency shields snapped into place.

"Damn," Laura cursed to herself, "Fire the archer missiles, all of them, right into that hole."

She was hoping to end the fight with a single shot, but it seemed the Covenant ship was more intact than it looked. Soon the last five archer missiles lances forth from the main bulk of the _Meridian_ and streaked towards the chasm in the back of the Covenant ship. Right before they hit, they exploded at a distance, the explosion rippling off of the ship's shields.

"Damn," Warner said loudly, "Sir, they just restored power to their shields."

Laura's brow furrowed. Things were getting complicated, and she didn't like complicated.

"Is the MAC gun charged again?" she asked intently.

"Yes sir," Locke responded.

"Fire it."

Locke pressed a button combination on his console and suddenly another massive MAC round plowed forth and rammed straight into the back end of Covenant ship. It plowed through the weak shielding, losing a bit of momentum, but not enough to stop the round from doing some damage before becoming lodged in the thick purple hull.

"How many rounds do we have left?" North asked, still intently watching the screen.

"Only two more, sir," Locke reported.

"Damn," she mumbled quietly, "Alright, break off the engagement. We're going to have to face them on the ground instead."

As the two ships began to move apart, she thumbed on her radio to the channel for their first ODST team.

"Dune, is the cargo bay clear?"

"Little skirmish at first, but otherwise it's been pretty empty since we got here, sir," crackled back the voice from the radio.

"Alright, get to the bridge, we need to talk about an upcoming sortie," she said into the radio.

"Yes sir," the voice said back.

She turned the radio off and rested her elbows on the arm rests of her chair, her hands holding her chin contemplatively.

_Things are getting complicated,_ she thought to herself, _A lot of people are going to die. No, _she corrected herself, _we're going to get back to Earth. This was the right decision, and I know it. We're going to get home alive, and we're going to help turn this war around._

The _Prime Meridian_ slowly floated away from the Covenant ship, each crew painting a very different, yet somehow similar picture of the upcoming battle.


	6. Grunts, Officers, and Grunting Officers

UNSC Ship _Prime Meridian_

Heading Towards Unknown Structure

Coordinates Unknown

"Round up marines," Dune barked across his team's radio frequency.

They had been running around on patrol and patching up naval officers in the cargo bay for the duration of their time in subspace and up until just recently when Captain North had radioed Sergeant Dune to get to the bridge about some new sortie. The team trotted up casually, lining up.

"Alright, report, how well off are the swabbies?" Dune inquired of the ODSTs.

"They've got plenty of munitions, meaning they could defend themselves if somehow some Covenant were still lurking around," Mike reported.

"And they've all been patched up," Davis spoke up, "None of them were wounded any worse than a few bumps and bruises."

"Good, Davis, you're with me, we're going to the bridge to get some new orders. The rest of you stay down here to keep an eye on these guys. Stay at the ready just in case," Dune ordered.

"Hey, I've just got to ask, why just the two of you. There could be some Covvies out there waiting to jump you, and you're going to need some more muscle than just the two of you," Rick spouted up, speaking more from his want to run off and kill, instead of genuine concern.

"Davis is a medic. We might run into some wounded, in which case she'll be more handy. Besides, most likely all of the Covenant have been killed by now. If they were going to make their move, they would've done it by now," Dune responded, "Now get to your job."

They all split and went back to what they were doing, aside from Davis, whom stayed with Dune.

"Alright," Dune said to Davis, "let's get going."

They walked out the doors, weapons ready, but otherwise not expecting any hostile contact.

"So, babe, tell me the truth, you just chose me to come with you because you wanted some time alone, right?" Davis said in a flirty voice.

"No, Corporal," Dune said in an exasperated tone, "I chose you to come along because you are a medic, and there might be wounded along the way. In which case, you would be needed."

"Aw, that's it?" she whined as they proceeded down the hallway, "I thought you were finally coming around."

"Coming around to insanity," Dune mumbled under his breath.

They continued to wind through the labyrinth of corridors until they finally came upon the bridge.

"Davis, stay here, I'll be back as soon as I'm done with the Captain," Dune ordered.

"I'll be waiting," Davis said, refusing to give up her flirting tone.

_Why me,_ Dune thought to himself as he entered the bridge.

He strolled in, weapon down, and saluted Captain North who returned the salute.

"At ease Sergeant," Laura said.

She got up from her chair and walked over in front of Dune and pointed to the monitor above Warner's console, which displayed the Covenant ship, and the mysterious structure towards which both ships were flying.

"This structure is evidently a holy place to the Covenant. According to an open broadcast by the prophet that's on that ship, they're going to defend it from us," Captain North told him.

"Defend it from us sir?" Dune repeated, confused.

"Evidently we're following after them in an attempt to destroy their holy place. What our actual military goal is here is to eliminate the Covenant occupants and take this place as a bargaining chip to use against the Covenant. If at all possible, we're going to take the prophet along with it."

North tapped Warner's shoulder. He pressed a few buttons and the screens display changed to a tactical map of the asteroid.

"In about a half an hour," she continued, "the Covenant ship will land on that structure and set up some hasty defenses. What we're going to do is swing in and drop your ODST team here using the drop pods."

The screen showed the landing zone on the asteroid the exact opposite of the LZ that the Covenant ship was heading for.

"Once you're down there, your objective is to clear a landing zone. We have no idea how many Covenant are down there, so that's why we're dropping on the other side of the rock and so quickly. I want to minimize human casualties. We're doing this all right after they park their ship so they have less of a chance to spread out and give us a better chance to get the jump on them. Once you've confirmed an LZ, we'll be using the pelicans on board to drop some marines down to help you out. From there, you'll set up a temporary base and we'll relay further orders to you there once you're set up. You've been chosen to lead the sortie. Understand?"

"Yes sir," Dune replied.

"Alright, get yourself and your team together," She ordered, handing him a data unit, "You have thirty minutes to debrief your team and be ready in the drop pods. Also, take Flynn with you. Dismissed."

Dune walked out of the bridge, passed Davis, who began to follow after him, and flicked on his radio to his team's frequency.

"Get to armory 4, next to the drop pods. We have a mission. I want you there on the double," he barked into the radio.

He flicked it off.

"What's the mission?" Davis asked.

"We've got a Covenant controlled structure to make a base on," Dune replied like it was an every day occurrence.

"Fun," Davis said sarcastically.

They walked the corridors again, eventually coming to an armory just a bit down the corridor from the rooms the drop pods could be accessed from. Dune thumbed open the door and walked in. Looking around he saw that Rick, Allison, Mike, and Ian were all here, waiting for him and Davis. Davis sat next to Hunt while Dune walked over to the monitor on the wall and inserted the data unit into the small slot underneath the screen.

"This," Dune said as the screen flicked to life, displaying the same plans he had seen earlier, "is an unknown space station. The Covenant are landing on it, and so are we. Both of us want control of it. Our mission, as always, is to drop in feet first and make sure it's safe for the rest of the soldiers to set their tender feet down on. We're setting down, as you can see, a fair distance from the Covenant and right after they do, so we shouldn't see much resistance, but we should be ready to defend this location before we get any backup. That means we go in fully equipped and ready to shoot down wave after wave of Covvie bastards waiting for our backup. Understand?"

The entire unit nodded, looking around.

"Any questions?"

"Just one," Ian asked, "why am I coming?"

"That's a good question. Evidently you're going to be needed for phase two of the plan, whatever that may be," Dune replied, "Any other questions?"

No one said anything.

"Good, we move out ASAP. Get equipped and get to your drop pod. You have fifteen minutes."

Everyone went about grabbing weapons from different lockers. Mike accounted for their sniper skills, so he equipped himself with more clips for his S2 and his custom magnum, and a belt of four grenades. Rick grabbed a jackhammer rocket launcher and two extra rounds for it, which he slung over his back. He also picked up more clips for his magnum and a belt of frag grenades. Ian got a battle rifle and twin magnums, along with some clips for both. Allison acquainted herself with another stolen plasma rifle and a plasma pistol, both miraculously possessing a full charge. She took a belt for grenades but stripped it of the frags and replaced them with 4 plasma grenades. Davis picked up a battle rifle with some extra clips and grabbed a med pack, slinging a belt of frags over her shoulder as well. Dune Grabbed a few more clips for his battle rifle and then equipped himself with a strap of fragmentation grenades and some extra shells for his shotgun.

"Let's go," Dune said, heading out the door and leading the way to the drop pods.


	7. Helljumpers: Jumpin Into Hell Since 2525

UNSC Ship _Prime Meridian_

Currently Above Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

"Dune, you ready down there?" Captain North asked over the radio.

"Yeah, we're ready captain, tell us when we can go," Sergeant Dune responded

"Alright, begin the sortie," she said with a covered tinge of apprehension.

Laura always hated sending people off into battle on her orders. She was afraid she might be sending them off into a situation that led to their inevitable demise.

_No,_ she thought, _Dune is my most capable helljumper on the ship. If anyone can do this, he can._

Dune flicked his radio off the bridge frequency and tuned it to his team.

"Alright helljumpers," he said, "time to move out. We're dropping in."

Dune pressed a button on his control panel. He suddenly felt a sharp jolt followed by the feeling of freefall. In the monitor of his pod he could see the sight of all the other drop pods of his team dropping out one right after another. Usually drops in these pods weren't the safest in the world, but the point they were dropping to was a straight drop only a few hundred feet below. The only reason they used the pods at all was that they needed the troops on the ground as soon as possible to get the waypoint ready before the Covenant could beat them to it.

"Woo Hoo!" Rick screamed across the radio.

He always loved the feeling of freefall.

"It's the only part of being a helljumper that's more fun that blasting Covvie sons of bitches," he had told Dune once.

"Hunt, shut up," Ian crackled across the radio frequency is a discernibly uneasy tone.

Though Flynn worked with them on more than one occasion, he was never eager to step into the drop pods. He, in fact, was rather afraid of the whole idea, but ever since Dune had shot him in the foot once as "persuasion" to get him into the pod, he didn't complain once.

"Suck it up Flynn," Giles said across the radio.

She was indifferent about the feeling of the drop either way. What she looked forward to was what happened after the pod touched down.

"Alright, radio silence until I say otherwise, no need to broadcast our exact position to them until absolutely necessary," Dune barked across the radio.

He wasn't worried about the Covenant finding them in truth, but he was actually more concerned with not having to put up with their incessant chatter. Suddenly the landing alert went off, effectively blaring a quiet klaxon into the ears of each helljumper. Dune braced himself for impact and just soon afterward he felt the intense feeling of the sudden stop at the end of the ride. He hit a button on his console and the door blew off his pod and he jumped out, battle rifle at the ready. As he began to scan the area his team landed and blew the doors off of their respective drop pods, coming out to join him.

"Any injuries?" Dune asked, turning to look at his team, satisfied that, for the time, there were no contacts.

"We seem to all be in one piece," Davis reported, "what about you, need me to look anything over?"

Dune responded with a sigh, "No, I'm fine."

He began to look around the area again to get his bearings. From where they were it was a clear area on the edge of what appeared to be a wooded area or forest. On the opposite side there was a wall of stone with a single large aperture at ground level. The hole, upon closer inspection, appeared to be a tunnel that lead through the cliff face to the other side. On the other side the large facility that dominated the middle of the asteroid could be seen at a distance. The top of the wall ended in what seemed to be a plateau, looking out into the distance. These two geographic landmarks made this a naturally fortified base.

"Alright, split up into teams of two and scan the area. Flynn and Wolowicz, get above on the top of that plateau and set up some early warning systems, then keep an eye out from up there. I want to know if something is coming from that direction at least an hour before it gets here," Dune barked.

As Ian grabbed some supplies for setting up a radar system, Mike grabbed some rope and climbing tools and began to scale the cliff face, his S2 strapped to his back. Dune turned to the rest of his team.

"Alright, Giles and Hunt, go out and scan these woods, Davis, stay here with me to get the base ready."

Allison and Rick turned to walk towards the woods and as they did Dune flicked on his radio to the bridge frequency of the _Prime Meridian_.

"Sir, we're ready for reinforcements, it's all clear," he said into his radio.

"Alright, I'm sending them now," North replied.

Dune turned his radio to his team's frequency and looked up towards the top of the plateau, where Mike was standing, looking around with his rifle's scope as Ian busily worked at setting up the radar system.

"How are things going up there," Dune asked.

"Pretty good, no sign of Covenant that I can see," Mike replied.

"Yeah and I'm almost done," Ian said, slightly distracted as he fiddled with his electronic equipment.

"So that just leaves us Sergeant," Davis said, trying her best at sounding seductive.

"Us, and them." Dune said smugly, pointing up at the incoming pelican that was inbound on their position.

"Damn," she said under her breath.

"Uh sir, we have a contact," Mike said over the radio, "seems the Covvies got a bit excited and sent a team over."

"Alright, can you snipe em?" Dune asked.

"Possibly, but there's a lot of tree cover, no guarantee," Mike replied.

"How many and how close?"

"One elite, two jackals, and four grunts," Mike reported back, "they'll be in the tunnel in about 3 minutes."

"Alright, keep your sight on em and be ready to take em out starting with the elite. Davis and I will be coming through the tunnel to engage. Don't shoot until I order."

"Yes sir,"

"Davis, let's go," Dune said, turning to Davis, who had heard the whole conversation.

The two of them trotted through the tunnel, trying to maintain a semblance of stealth. As they neared the end, Dune peered out. He could see them advancing on his location. He ordered Davis down with a hand signal and then crouched to join her, whispering into his radio.

"Open fire."

Suddenly two separate gunshots were heard as four trails of vapor streaked down towards the now frightened set of Covenant. They looked up just in time for a jackal and two grunts to drop. The elite managed to sidestep and took the round in its shoulder, leaving its left arm completely limp as it oozed purple blood from the sizable bullet hole in its arm. It yelled and suddenly the remaining grunts and jackal opened fire on the ODST who had fired the rounds. Mike had already ducked for cover and was reloading his S2.

"Alright, I'm going to roll a grenade out. After it explodes, open fire."

Dune whispered just loudly enough that Davis could hear his orders, as he prepped his grenade. He threw it just hard enough that it landed and rolled into the middle of the group who barely noticed it due to their firing. The elite noticed it right before it exploded and jumped out of the way, leaving the jackal and grunts to die in the fragmentation blast that sent shrapnel into the bodies of the Covenant soldiers, who went flying with the explosion. Their bodies slammed into trees and the cliff wall. Just then Dune and Davis sprung out and began to fire their rifles at the elite that was still laying on its stomach. Its shield had been knocked out by the S2 round, and had not had the chance to charge properly before being knocked out again by the exploding frag grenade. Still bleeding from the wound in it's arm, it hopped up quickly enough to avoid being hit by the incoming battle rifle rounds and ducked behind a large boulder that was nearby. Suddenly a plasma grenade arced through the air, landing at the feet of Dune and Davis, who jumped out of the way right before the impending explosion. As they got back up to see the elite emerge from behind the rock, holding a plasma rifle aimed at them, suddenly a single gunshot was heard and the elite dropped. It's head had exploded from an S2 round passing through it at high velocity.

"You ok down there," Mike asked through the radio.

"Yeah, we're alright," Dune replied, "you set up there?"

"Yeah," Ian chimed in, "until we get a base set up down there though, we're going to have to monitor the radar from up here."

"Alright, you and Wolowicz stay up there and keep an eye for any more Covvies that feel the need to come around," Dune ordered.

He and Davis emerged from the tunnel to the pelican settling down in the middle of the clearing.

"Giles and Hunt, report," Dune said into his radio.

"Nothing out here," Hunt replied.

"Yeah, no contacts," Giles added in, not even trying to cover up her disappointment.

"Alright, come back then, we have a waypoint to set up."

The pelican opened its hatch and marines carrying supplies began to unload. Dune walked up to them. One turned around and saluted.

"Corporal Tolsky reporting sir, ready for you to take command," the marine said.

Dune shook his head. New recruits always forgot to not salute on the battlefield, and he always got saddled with them.

"Alright Corporal, let's get this base set up," Dune replied.


	8. Another Command Decision, GASP!

Alpha Drop – Temporary waypoint

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

Dune walked through the now roughly constructed base, christened Alpha Drop. Since the initial contact with the Covenant when they first touched down, there had been no sign of the Covenant forces that were assumedly occupying the other half of the structure. This fact struck Dune as odd. He knew that sooner or later they would show up to remove him and his rag tag team from this rock.

"Sir," Corporal Tolsky said as he rain up next to Dune and saluted, "Captain North is waiting to talk to you in your office."

"Alright," Dune replied without looking at the corporal, "go check on Flynn and Wolowicz of my team on top of the plateau over there."

As Tolsky trotted off, Dune went in the opposite direction towards his office. The interior was little more than a tent and some steel girders holding it up. Dune walked in and went to the terminal, taken from his drop pod. He pressed a few buttons and soon Captain North's face appeared on the screen.

"Dune," she said, peering at him through the screen from the arm of her captain's chair aboard the _Prime Meridian_, "how are things down there?"

"Uneventful," he reported, "surprisingly, the Covvies haven't come to play at all since the initial firefight earlier."

"That's a little odd," Laura said contemplatively.

She sat in thought for a second before continuing.

"Well, odd or not, your orders are to take the fight to them."

"Just what I've been hoping for," Dune said chuckling.

Suddenly the screen changed from the captain's face to a rough schematic of the asteroid.

"You and your team are to go around the structure in the middle of the asteroid and scout out the area and the Covenant fortifications. Once you've got the lay of the land down, you're to plan an invasion in which you and the ground forces can get in and try to take their prophet. If you can't take the prophet hostage, kill him. Either way, we've officially gained a bargaining chip against the Covenant, a holy place, and, or, one of their religious leaders."

"Understood sir," Dune said, "that's it, a little alien smash and grab?"

"That's it," North replied.

"Well sir, permission to speak freely?" he requested.

"Granted."

"I thought you were actually going to assign something hard."

"To most people, sergeant, this would be," Captain North replied with a smirk, and then cut off her end of the screen.

She knew that there were only a few reasons why the Covenant hadn't attacked yet. They either lacked the force to do so, which was highly unlikely considering that they decided to land and "fortify" this station, or they were waiting to mass their forces and destroy the humans all at once. Neither one was a savory thought. Down on the ground Dune pondered the same thoughts.

_They must be massing their troops,_ he thought,_ getting ready for their strike_

He assumed that the Covenant would, as per usual, be ready to take the offensive, as they usually did. Backing down from a fight wasn't in Covenant nature, and as they had already done so multiple times in the air due to their prophet's commands, it was doubtful they would do it again on the ground now that the elites were in charge. Dune turned his radio to his team's frequency.

"Alright helljumpers, get your asses to my office, we have a mission briefing in 5 minutes," he barked through the radio.

Consecutive yes sirs were heard coming back through the radio from each member of Dune's team. It was finally time for the helljumpers to do what they came to the ground to do, take the fight to the Covenant.


	9. On Matters of Helljumper Sexuality

Just Outside Beta Point: Covenant Base

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

Dune walked along quietly at point. Behind him was Wolowicz, followed by Davis, Flynn, Hunt, and Giles. He had told his team to as silent as possible, because it was impossible to know whether or not the Covenant had patrols around nearby or not, and it was best to act as if they did.

The foliage had changed during their long hike. It started off as a temperate forest with a lot of pine trees, and eventually came to a more jungle-like climate where tall trees formed a canopy of thick leaves blocking out the light from the nearest star which, when reflected off of the air that was mysteriously held to this rock, made the sky a bluish color.

Suddenly the group heard the sound of a stick breaking somewhere nearby. Dune immediately held up his hand as a sign to stop to the group behind him. They all halted just in time for him to give the order to crouch at get their guns at the ready by balling his fist and lowering his arm. They all crouched in the dense jungle foliage as Dune looked through the sight of his battle rifle. He quickly held up two fingers, signaling that there were two contacts ahead. He then changed his fingers from two to his index finger, signaling that the contacts were elites. He kept his eyes on the elites who were walking by with plasma rifles at the ready. It was only a patrol, but their mission wasn't to pick a fight, yet. Once the elites had passed Dune stood up quietly, and motioned for the others to do the same. They continued on their path as silently as possible until they came to the edge of a clearing. The clearing obviously wasn't natural, or as natural as anything on this odd structure was, but instead seemed to have been made by the Covenant. Many trees, or so it seemed, had been broken down by well placed plasma shots from a wraith tank. In the middle of the clearing was a temporary landing pad that was typical to small Covenant bases. It seemed they were operating straight out of their ship because the only things in the clearing were a few grunts and jackals that were being watched by an elite, the wraith mortar tank that had made the clearing, and a gravity lift. The gravity lift, as was expected by the veteran helljumpers, lead straight up into the gigantic ship that hovered over the area. Dune got one last look around with the recorder on his helmet, taking care to zoom in on spots of tactical importance. This video would be the basis of the tactical maps he used to plot their mission later. After taking his sweep of the area, Dune motioned for the ODSTs to turn and quietly work their way back out of the area, thusly signaling their mission was over, and they could go home. As they all turned and began to walk, suddenly they heard the sound of more sticks snapping under feet. Dune ordered down quickly with the normal hand motion. He looked around for the source of the noise. Soon he realized the sound was getting louder, but came from a different direction than before. Dune's eyes widened when he realized the elite patrol they had passed earlier was heading straight for the helljumpers. He turned quickly and saw the culprit of the first noise. A small branch lay firmly broken under Hunt's boot. Dune spun quickly and looked through the foliage again, hoping to see the elites pass the now tense helljumpers by. Such was not the luck however as a searing blast of plasma shot through the dense leaves suddenly and narrowly missed hitting Davis in the shoulder.

"Damn it Rick," Dune muttered.

By the time his utterance had left his lips searing hot plasma burst through the residential flora in rapid succession like a scorching rain of death.

"Move!" Dune shouted.

Suddenly the ODSTs shot up and began to run in the direction they came from, hoping to separate themselves from the two closing in elites before reinforcements got called. In spite of the speed at which the battle hardened marines ran, the plasma fire didn't cease or even wane. In fact, it was now followed by the sound of the two elites shouting in their alien tongue. After this chase continued on for what deceptively felt like miles they came to a clearing which was pressed up against the side of the alien structure that took up the majority of the asteroid. On Dune's map of the asteroid that was shown in the display of his helmet he saw that this clearing was marked as a midpoint between Alpha Drop and the Covenant base.

"Get to the other side of this clearing and take cover together where you can, we're ending this chase now," Dune barked, still sprinting across the open grass.

When all the ODSTs got to the other side of the clearing they immediately took cover behind trees and rocks. Wolowicz hid behind a rock, his sniper rifle was balanced across the top of the large boulder, ready to take out the incoming elites they second they came out into the open. Flynn was behind the same large rock, his back pressed firmly against it and panting heavily from the chase. Davis Flattened herself against the back side of a tree, her battle rifle pressed barrel up against her shoulder, the side of the scope pressed against her check. Giles and Hunt had both opted to stand at the ready, each next to large trees. Giles had a plasma grenade in her hand, prepped and ready to throw. Hunt, however, had two SMGs leveled at the far edge of the clearing, waiting for the incoming Covenant. Dune stood next to the rock which Mike had ducked behind. His battle rifle propped at his shoulder, ready to fire. Suddenly the elites burst through the other side of the clearing. As they did a plasma grenade streaked through the air as did rounds from Hunt's SMGs, Mike's S2, and Dune's battle rifle. The elites tumbled out the way, feeling the impact of each smaller round on their quickly diminishing shields. Just as one rolled behind a large rock he turned just in time to see his fellow elite get hit with a plasma grenade in the chest. The elite that had been hit ran forward quickly, hoping to take out the humans with its own explosion. As it ran it took an S2 round in the left leg. It slowed for a second and then, trying to take another step on its injured leg, fell halfway through the clearing. As it hit the ground it looked at the humans it had been running to madly to kill. It let out an angry scream and was engulfed in a bright blue explosion as the plasma grenade that had molecularly bonded itself to its chest exploded. The second elite, enraged by the death of his comrade, emerged from its cover, taking advantage of it's now recharged shield to defend it from the impending onslaught of lead. It fired off as many shots from its plasma rifle as it could before tumbling behind another rock for cover, its shield sparking and sputtering from the numerous impacts. Wolowicz yelled out and fell back as one of the fired shots hit him in the right shoulder, which he had exposed just enough to prop his rifle against. Davis immediately dove from her cover towards Mike and Ian. Ducking behind the rock she took a look at Mike's arm. Seeing the burning flesh she quickly dropped her battle rifle and began to delve into her med-kit. Suddenly the elite sprung up its head again and tossed two live plasma grenades at once, one towards Dune, and one towards Hunt.

"Cover!" Dune yelled as he dove behind the rock.

The twin explosions engulfed the front of the rock, covering it in plasma scouring.

"Damn it!" Hunt yelled from behind the tree he had taken cover behind.

Rick hastily began reloading his SMGs as plasma fire began to fly over the rock that was protecting the majority of the ODST team. Shayla, not hesitating, dropped her med-kit and grabbed Wolowicz' discarded S2 sniper rifle and, quickly turning as she stood, stood up straight and fired of a single round without looking through the scope. The report was a surprise to Dune who was busy reloading his battle rifle. When he turned and looked in the direction of the now silenced plasma fire he saw the elite's body slumping, a vapor trail through the air where the elites now exploded head had once been.

"Alright," Shayla said, putting the rifle down and grabbing her med-kit again, "let's get you patched up."

"Shit, that was sweet as hell!" Hunt yelled as he ran over to the rest of the group.

"Hell yeah it was," Giles agreed.

"See, this is why I love this girl," Ian said, standing up and heading towards Shayla.

"Don't even think about it Flynn," she said tersely without even looking at Ian.

"Alright, everyone keep watch, there might be more coming," Dune said, his usual harsh tone softened to an odd degree, "Davis, get Wolowicz patched up and let's get headed back to base as soon as possible."

As the group dispersed Dune leaned down to Davis.

"That was some damn good shooting, Shayla," he whispered, and then stood up and walked off to help patrol.

"Damn," Wolowicz chuckled said past his teeth, clenched tight from pain, "I might have to have you teach me that sometime."

"Yeah," Shayla replied, going about treating Mike's wound, "now if only I could get Dune to recognize me like that as a woman."

"Hey," Mike said in a consoling tone, "Don't ask for miracles. I half suspect Serge is a eunuch."

"I hope not. That would make my plans for him a lot harder," Shayla said chuckling as she applied the last bandage to Mike's shoulder. "There ya go," Shayla said. "Now avoid heavy lifting, and doing anything else strenuous with that arm, no matter how lonely you get."

Davis stood up and walked off. Mike sat up and pondered her final comment for a bit, then got a look of indignation.

"Hey!" Wolowicz said shooting up and running after her, "That's not funny!"


	10. The Best Laid Plans of Mice&Helljumpers

Alpha Drop – Temporary Waypoint

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

Dune and company all seated themselves around the command tent. After getting back from their mission each had been given a bit of downtime to recuperate from their miscellaneous injuries. Mike's arm was in a sling to take stress off of his injured arm. After everyone had settled around the tent Dune picked up a remote and pressed a button. The monitor next to him flickered on and showed some of the footage of the clearing under the covenant ship.

"I'm sure you all remember this place," Dune said pointing his thumb at the screen. " In case you forgot, it's more or less the entire reason we're here in the first place. We're supposed to either capture a prophet, or destroy the Covenant occupation forces so that this 'holy place' of theirs becomes humanity's bartering chip. Now, how we plan to do this is going to be somewhat interesting."

Dune pressed a button on the remote and the screen changed to a topographical map of the area around the covenant ship.

"Here's how this is going down. Wolowicz, Davis and Flynn will make up one group, Group A, including a small roster of marines who are going to be under your command. Wolowicz, you're in command of this group, but if you're injury proves to be too much for combat, Davis has the right to remove you from action if need be. The other group, Group B, will be comprised of myself, Hunt, and Giles and another small group of marines."

Two X's appeared on the screen.

"Group A will be stationed here."

Dune pointed towards one of the X's on the monitor.

"Group B will be here," Dune said pointing towards the other X on the screen. "Group B will charge in and make some noise to draw the covenant out."

As Dune said this the X that stood for Group B moved in from the edge of the woods to a spot underneath the Covenant ship.

"Once a good sized group of the Covenant come out to play I'll signal in Group A who will back us up by coming in and overwhelming the Covenant force who won't be ready for a sudden wave of reinforcements."

Once again one of the X's began to move. This time the X representing Group A came to meet up with the other X joining to make one larger X.

"Once we're done with cleaning up the welcoming committee, we'll move inside the ship via the gravity lift."

Suddenly the X disappeared the entire screen went black then flickered back with what looked like a rough schematic of a Covenant ship.

"This map is courtesy of the few excursions that have been made into Covenant ships. From this point we'll be going in further to try to get the Prophet while the marines hold onto our exit. We'll take this path to what we believe is the bridge of the ship."

The screen highlighted a path through the Covenant ship.

"From there we'll escort the Prophet out and back to Alpha Drop. If things go wrong, the marines will have the _Prime Meridian_'s only tactical nuke, which they'll use to destroy the ship, leaving the structure for us to take as our own. If things go right, we'll set it to explode and leave so that we get the Prophet and the structure. That's pretty much it. Any questions?"

The monitor went to black as the group shook their heads.

"Alright, here's your rosters, assemble your teams and get ready to depart. We're heading out tomorrow at 06:00. Dismissed."

Everyone stood and left the tent except for Davis.

"Can I help you with something Shayla?" Dune asked.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" Davis asked.

"Granted."

"You seem tired sir, the entire group does. I'm worried for morale at least, if not the fact that two of the people you're sending into heavy combat have injured shoulders," Davis said in a somewhat worried tone.

"I know," Dune said relaxing back and rubbing his brow. "I know, but if we don't pull this off, there's not a lot of chance of us going home, because by the time we pack up the Covenant ship is likely to be operational again and the chances of us surviving another shootout with it is slim. I need people I can count on, that's why Wolowicz and Giles are still going on this sortie. As for morale, we don't even know if the Earth is still going to be there when we get back. We're in a bad situation. If we don't keep everyone working, morale will just get worse."

"I understand, I guess," Shayla replied. "Just, please, be careful for yourself as well sir."

"I will be."

"Thank you sir," Davis said as she left. "I don't know what would happen if I lost you."

Davis smiled and left the tent. After she was gone Dune lifted his head, leaning it back and shaking it side to side slightly as he smiled.

"I know."


	11. 101 Bad Ways to Wake Up a Marine

Alpha Drop – Temporary Waypoint

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

Dune shot straight up out of his sound slumber when he heard the klaxon blaring outside along with the sounds of yells and gunfire. He got up and ran to his footlocker. After hurriedly opening it up he suited up and grabbed his battle rifle and magnum along with a belt of grenades and ran outside. Dune ran outside just in time to fall ass-first back into his tent to avoid losing his head to plasma fire. Shaking off the close call he stood up and ran back out. Plasma fire lit up the night as marines and Covenant exchanged fire all around. Upon first observation it was vaguely easy to figure out what was going on but Dune followed protocol anyway and ran through the crossfire to the nearest unit of marines who were crouching behind a barricade and firing at a small group of grunts and jackals.

"What's going on?" Dune shouted over the noise.

"They attacked right out of the blue," the corporal yelled back. "Seems like the entire Covenant company from their ship is here."

"Shit," Dune muttered, "They're serious. Any idea where the ODST team is?"

"The perimeter was pretty badly hit on the forest side sir. From what I understand they went down there to take back that front."

"Thanks corporal," Dune yelled as he ran off towards where his team likely was.

-

The plasma fire raged on overhead as the small contingent of ODSTs hid behind their makeshift shields.

"Down!" Hunt yelled as he hauled up and fired off a jackhammer rocket round straight into the oncoming line of Covenant forces.

As he ducked back down he heard the screams of a few grunts and a large number of jackals as they went flying into the air, dead, dying, or maimed.

"Get a dent in it?" Wolowicz asked as he slapped a clip into his S2.

"Not much, and if this keeps up at this rate I'm gonna have to start shitting in my hand and throwing it at em, cause I'm running out of ammo for this thing," Hunt replied, exhausted and slouching.

"Of course not. Didn't you hear the loud overconfident bastard's prattling about the full force of the Covenant coming to bear on us?" Giles interjected in an irritated tone.

"I suppose the prophet himself wouldn't come if he wasn't sure he was going to win, though the pep-talk he gave his troops in the guise of a declaration of war on us was a bit much," Davis said in a nonchalant tone.

"Well either way," Ian yelled over the gunfire, "it seems we're holding them off. Maybe," Ian's talking was cut off by a high-pitched scream as a wraith shot exploded not far from them.

"Shit!" Hunt let out.

"What's wrong?" Davis yelled back.

"I don't have enough ammo for that tank!" Rick replied.

"You're kidding me!" Wolowicz yelled exasperated at the luck.

Suddenly twin rocket rounds streaked through the air and impacted on the wraith tank, causing it to go up in an explosion of gunpowder, explosives, and plasma.

"Maybe what Flynn?" Dune said, taking advantage of the short break in plasma fire to plop down next to the thoroughly soiled Naval techie.

"I," Ian replied hesitantly and breathing heavily, "just thought that maybe if the prophet is,"

"The prophet is here?" Dune yelled as he cut off Ian.

"Yes sir," Davis replied.

"What's he here doing?" Dune inquired hurriedly.

"Well he came here to kick our asses, according to his little speech," Hunt yelled over the now returning plasma fire.

"I don't think so," Ian interjected, "He's probably more along the lines of realizing that if he doesn't strike first and in mass like this then his forces will loose trust in him."

"What do you mean?" Dune asked.

"Well I mean think about it, not only did he run once, when he ran from Earth, but he ran again when he got here and we beat him in the air," Ian said.

"You're right, that's not normal Covenant behavior," Dune mumbled to himself. "That means he's been forced into this fight. If we drive back his forces he'll probably turn back to his tactic of running for his life."

Suddenly two S2 rounds streaked through the air and two elite screams could be heard, one silenced quickly as he died from a large chest wound and the other slowly gargled away as the blood welled up from the injury in his throat effectively drowning him. The S2 rounds were followed by a barrage of battle rifle rounds from Davis and plasma rifle rounds from Giles who followed after Mike taking advantage of the small break in plasma fire that his shots had caused.

"Die you sons of bitches!" Giles yelled as she fired the plasma rifle in her good hand until it overheated.

"That's it!" Dune yelled. "That's how we'll do this. Listen up. I have some support coming in to help maintain this position. Once the backup gets here we're going to take off and hit the front where the prophet is. When he turns tail and runs, we follow after and give chase. He'll probably only take a small contingent of his most loyal troops with him because if he runs for a third time I doubt his army will follow him any more, so he'll leave them to die while he runs off and escapes in his ship. When we catch up to him, we stop him, kill his guards, and take him prisoner. Got it?"

"Roger," Davis said.

"Yeah," Ian replied.

"Fuck yes, finally going to get down to kicking some prophet ass for once," Rick said happily.

"Let's do it," Wolowicks said.

"If there's any torture on the prophet, I call dibs," Giles said menacingly, while tapping her knife with her bad arm.

"Alright, now it's just time to wait for the cavalry to arrive," Dune said turning from the front lines to look behind him. "And speak of the devil, here they are."

The rest of the helljumpers ducked behind their shields and turned to see a large group of marines arrived and began to set up portable turrets and shields and fire back at the thinning Covenant front. Dune signaled for his team to move behind him but stay down and headed towards the marine obviously in command of the group. After glancing at his badges, Dune stood and tapped his shoulder. The marine turned at looked at him.

"Sir, we're here as ordered to take back this front," the marine said.

"Good timing corporal. Now, which front is the prophet on," Dune asked.

"I'm afraid don't know sir," the marine replied.

Dune frowned and reached for his radio. He hadn't wanted to use it because he knew the Covenant would likely overhear his communiqué but he had to find out where the prophet was and fast before he had a chance to get away. He flicked his radio to wide broadcast.

"This is Dune to all UNSC forces at Alpha Drop. If you have visual contact with the prophet, report in."

Before long the static on his radio broke as one of the marines crackled back with a report.

"Sir, this is Lance Corporal Weller, we have visual on the prophet."

"Location?" Dune asked over the radio.

"By the tunnel sir," crackled back Weller's voice.

"Alright helljumpers," Dune yelled at his team, "You heard the man, let's move."

The small contingent of ODSTs made their way through the base, occasionally exchanging fire with small groups of Covenant forces that had made their way into the inside of the base, until eventually they got to the front closest to the tunnel. Dune ordered his forces down and went to the nearest marine.

"Private, where's Corporal Weller?" Dune asked.

The private turned to look at Dune and immediately saluted. Dune just shook his head and the marine quickly realized his mistake and dropped his hand.

"He's over there sir," the private replied pointing at a small group of marines.

"Thank you private. Just a bit of advice, calm down a little." Dune said, patting the soldier on the shoulder and moving on.

"I'll try sir," the marine said wearily.

As he walked Dune turned around and said, "ODSTs stay here and help on the front lines."

They nodded back and began firing. Dune made his way towards the group indicated by the private to try to find Corporal Weller. When he got to the group he realized the group was made up of one marine on the ground and two naval medics. Upon closer inspection he realized the marine on the ground was Corporal Weller.

"Weller!" Dune shouted at the fallen marine as he closed in.

"Sir?" Weller said breathing heavily.

It was plain to see when Dune got there that Weller had taken plasma fire to his chest and wasn't going to live much longer. The medics around him were giving him morphine and trying to fix the wound and fill it with biofoam, but with a hole like this is seemed useless.

"Weller, I need you to tell me where the prophet is," Dune said in a worried tone.

"Sir," Weller said trying to sit up.

He got about halfway up before he coughed up blood and was forced back down by both the medics and his own weak body.

"Don't sit up," Dune said, "Just tell me where he is."

"Sir, he went through the tunnel with a small contingent of elites just a few seconds before you arrived," Weller replied. "If you hurry up you can catch him."

"How do you know…"

"It's kind of obvious sir, just make sure to get him. If this turns out well, everyone who's died so far will have," Corporal Weller coughed again, "died for a purpose."

"We will Corporal," Dune said patting his shoulder, "We will."

Dune got up and ran back to his helljumpers.

"Through the tunnel marines," Dune yelled, "Break a hole in the wall and lets go."

"Got it," Rick said as he prepped his now reloaded jackhammer rocket launcher for fire.

"Oh I've got it," Giles smirked as he primed two plasma grenades in each hand and got ready to throw them.

"Let it rip," Wolowicz said as he steadied his rifle on the barrier shield he was hiding behind.

Just then Hunt launched two rocket rounds at the group of Covenant forces nearest to the mouth of the tunnel as Giles threw the four plasma grenades, rather haphazardly and inaccurately, at the Covenant forces as well. The resulting explosion took out many of the aliens and left the remainder scattered and unorganized. Mike opened up with his S2 and dropped four elites with four shots, making it even harder for the remaining Covenant to reorganize the now fleeing grunts.

"Now!" Dune yelled and the small group of ODST's hopped over the barriers and ran. They quickly cleared the distance between the two engaged front lines, dodging crossfire as they went. After what felt like a deceptively long period of time the helljumpers had gotten past enemy lines and into the mouth of the tunnel before being noticed, leaving the battle at Alpha Drop behind.


	12. I Changed My Mind, I Don't Want to Know

Alpha Drop – Tunnel 

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown 

Dune and his team followed the path without looking back. They didn't want to think about how many good soldiers were losing their lives in the battle, they just wanted to get the mission done with. Dune in particular pressed ahead without thinking about anything but the path ahead. He didn't want to think about the soldier he had to leave behind to die. The path ahead began to widen and the tunnel opened to the clearing. Dune silently ordered his troops down and they all crouched behind cover. In the darkness of night it was easy to see the lights of the prophet's hovering chair as he and his escort approached the odd structure in the middle of the asteroid. The escort seemed to be made up of three honor guard armor clad elites and one large furry creature that stood tall, even beside the elites. As the Covenant troops approached the structure the Prophet moved his hand over a blue orb that was embedded in the wall. As soon as he did this a large hexagonal chunk of wall creaked into action and then began to split down the middle showing a large door. After the door had completely widened to its fullest extent the small group of Covenant moved through the door, disappearing into the dimly lit darkness of the odd structure. After the door had closed Dune stood.

"So that thing has a door," Dune said.

"That's what it looks like," Mike interjected.

"So do we follow 'em in?" Rick said in a tone verging on confused.

"Yeah, we follow them in. The question is, into what," Dune said gazing at the structure.

"The structure appears to be vaguely Covenant in design. Maybe even that new race we heard of in briefing," Ian said.

"New race? Like more aliens out to kill us?" Giles said in a mildly disinterested tone.

"The Forerunners," Dune said, "They're an ancient race that predate any known race, according to the reports I've heard. In fact, it seems the Covenant steal their designs for their technology. This structure, though," Dune trailed of for a moment. "This structure seems older than the ones I've heard of."

"How do you know all of this sir?" Davis asked in an uneasy tone.

"I'm a commanding officer of a helljumper unit. At my rank, that's actually something to be proud of. I have friends in intelligence that don't mind leaking small details that won't get them in trouble," Dune replied in a matter of fact tone.

"I don't mean to nit-pick sir, but the longer we stay here the more time the prophet and his cronies have to get away," Wolowicz said.

"You're right. No time to plan, nothing to plan with, let's go ahead and go."

The helljumpers moved in to the area that the prophet had used to get inside.

"Stay frosty, stay together," Dune said turning his head back to look at his team.

Turning his head back around, Dune ran his hand over the blue orb in the wall. The wall creaked again, but this time stopped before it began to open.

"Did you do it right?" Rick asked.

"I did it just like the prophet," Dune replied.

"Move over, let me have a look," Ian said shoving through.

Before he could get close the blue orb began to glow bright blue.

"This can't be good," Flynn said backing up.

Just as Ian had gotten behind Dune, the orb shot out a bright beam that hit Dune, who suddenly disappeared into a blue light. The other helljumpers raised their weapons and backed up but before anyone could fire a round the beam shot again, lancing out and striking Ian, whom also disappeared. The remaining helljumpers turned and ran to get cover. Before any of them had a chance to get away to any form of cover, the beam lanced out four more times striking the remaining ODST's and causing each to vanish.

-

Dune awoke to a strange room. It was large, made of a steel-like metal, and seemed to be illuminated with dim blue lighting. As he stood he came to realize that his fellow helljumpers were passed out on the floor, yet to wake up from the odd mode of transportation.

"Oh, master! Thank goodness you're here!" said an unseen high-pitched voice.

Dune looked around to see where the odd voice had come from but didn't see another living thing in the room aside from himself and his team. Suddenly a metallic object with what appeared to be one glowing yellow eye floated down in front of his face. Dune recoiled at the sight of the object. It appeared to be a metallic ball with a yellow dot on it the size of a fist and around the ball was an odd twisted bit of contoured metal that seemed to house the ball without actually touching it.

"Master, it's so good that you've come. I apologize for the abrupt and unauthorized dematerialization but it was vital that you and your group were transported here as quickly as possible. The other species that has entered the lab has breached containment protocol and released it from the holding area. It's imperative that we contain it again before it spreads and accesses both your and the other species' ships," the odd metallic object said.

"Woah woah woah," Dune said cutting off the object and stumbling back, still disoriented from the beam. "Who, or what are you, and what is it?"

"I am the keeper of research lab 00270, and it is the flood of course."


	13. Bad News Even For A Guy With A Deathwish

Location Unknown

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

"Research Lab?" Rick said sitting up and rubbing his head. "The Flood? What the hell is it talking about."

"Well," Ian said standing up and dusting off his pants, obviously irritated at his current state and Rick's ignorance. "It's pretty obvious that this installation is a research lab set up to research the Flood. Whatever that may be."

"The Flood, where have I heard that before?" Davis chimed in, not even attempting to stand up.

"The bible?" Giles said in a smart ass, but bemused tone as she admired her own hand as she waved it in front of her face. "Everyone try this, this is pretty crazy shit going down here."

Wolowicz sat up cradling his bad arm and obviously feeling the pain of every inch. "No, I've heard it in some recent military report, in passing." He managed to say between gritted teeth.

"I apologize for any discomfort or disorientation you may be experiencing," the Keeper interjected cheerfully. "In spite of the creators having more advanced teleportation systems devised, they left this installation with not but these older models that, without sense dampeners, allow you to feel yourself be torn atom from atom and converted into energy, then reassembled. It's a quite disorienting process to say the least."

"Then why did you use it on us?" Shayla said, finally standing up.

"There was no choice. As I previously stated, the Flood has been released and it needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible," the Keeper replied. "I am led to wonder, masters, why it is you've brought such ineffective weapons for combating the flood?"

"Ineffective?" Rick said in an almost offended tone, while petting his SMG like a pet.

"Yes, the Flood will be most difficult to terminate with such primitive weaponry. The lead projectiles will do no good unless you hit the central nervous center of the larger, mutated flood, and will only serve to trigger the expulsion of the immature Flood from their breeding mutations."

"Mutations? Breeding? It sounds like we're talking about something out of one of those hokey sci-fi movies from the 20th century," Ian said in disbelief.

"Yeah, but it's not something out of a movie Flynn," Dune said in a solemn tone.

"Sir tell me you don't buy into this floating scrap heaps story," Ian shot back.

"Scrap heap?" the Keeper mumbled in an offended tone.

"Yeah, I do, but not because he said it," Dune said finally turning his head to look towards his team for the first time since he had gotten his question answered.

"Then why do you?" Flynn asked.

"Because, naval intelligence says so," Dune replied.

"What?" Ian said, "How did you get ahold of naval intelligence reports?"

"I have friends," Dune said, "but the basic idea is the Flood is a parasitic race that takes over any living creature of sufficient size. They are bad news in the worst way."

"Then what do we do," Davis asked.

"That's a good question," Dune replied, "that's a good question."


	14. Tylenol Maybe?

U.N.S.C. Ship _The Prime Meridian_

Above Unknown Structure

Coordinates Unknown

"We've just lost Corporal Weller," the voice over the radio crackled as Captain Laura North listened in intently.

She didn't know what to do, for some reason their sensors only worked for a stunted distance when they were close to this structure. Any attempt at a long-range scan directed at the asteroid was absolutely useless. All that got returned was a lost signal, almost like the asteroid was designed to cut off any scan of the surface. With the interference, they were lucky they got a look at Alpha Drop over the lower powered close-range scans before they dropped the marines down there to put together a base. Laura knew that there was no way she could've seen this attack coming any sooner because she couldn't see any further than the outlines of Alpha Drop's borders and whatever the windows of her small bridge showed her. Knowing that did little to quiet her mind, however. If she had known the enemy was coming she could've ordered them to start a counter offensive, possibly lessen the casualties on the human side by at least a few dozen, something more than sit in her seat and wait for the battle to unfold in front of her in the form of a few scans and radio chatter.

"Sir," said a member of the bridge crew.

"What is it lieutenant?" Captain North responded in a worried tone.

"We just got confirmation that the prophet was at this battle," the lieutenant responded.

"Was?" Laura asked with a bit of confusion.

"He just exited through the tunnel and was followed by Sergeant Dune's team sir."

"Good, Dune will bring him back. For the time being, keep listening to his frequency, but don't contact him unless he contacts us first or I order you."

"Yes sir," the lieutenant replied.

This was, indeed, good. If Dune couldn't bring back the prophet, all the marines this ship has left weren't going to be enough. He was the most talented officer she had on the ground right now. Possibly the most talented she had under her command at all. If he and his team couldn't do this mission, it's likely it couldn't be done.

"Sir," another member of the bridge crew said without turning his head from his console, "we just got confirmation on another wave of Covenant troops coming straight at alpha drop from the east. Corporal Tolsky is asking for reinforcements."

Laura looked down at her monitor. She hit a few buttons and it ran a crew manifest of the ship, the Marines still aboard the ship were highlighted. As it scrolled it came to a large section of highlighted names. Laura hit a button on her console.

"Lance Corporal Dumonte, take a pelican down the surface and rendezvous with Corporal Tolsky. Be ready for a fight," She said.

"Yes sir," a voice crackled back across the radio.

Captain North scrolled over the manifest again. She knew that she was going to need troops on the ship just in case, but right now the real threat was on the ground. She had no choice but to try to win the fight on the ground. If Dune did get the prophet, but Alpha Drop was gone, it wasn't going to help anyone. No, when Dune gets the prophet, not if. When.


	15. Crap, My Socks Are Wet

Location Unknown

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

"The answer is simple masters, the Flood cannot be allowed to escape this facility. If it infests you and the other species on this installation it will not stop there. It will commandeer your ships and escape this place, spreading out to the galaxy," the Keeper said in a cheerful voice.

"That sounds bad," Davis said.

"Very bad," Dune replied.

"So then I reiterate Shayla's previous sentiment of, what do we do?" Ian said in a condescending tone.

"That's simple," Rick said boisterously, "we kick parasitic ass."

"As if it's ever that simple," Mike said.

"I don't see what's so hard about nuking a few bugs," Allison said checking her plasma rifle over.

"They aren't bugs," Dune said, "but the Keeper is right, we can't let it get out. First things first though, do you know what happened to the others who came into this lab?"

"They were either infested or destroyed by the flood. None are left alive, or at least alive as they once were," the Keeper responded.

"Perfect," Dune said tapping his head with his battle rifle in a motion as if he was beating his head on it, "so we fly out this far to chase these bastards and yet we've nothing to show for it except an infested holy place and a lot of dead marines."

"Holy place?" the Keeper asked in a questioning tone.

"Don't ask," Dune answered in an exasperated tone. "The only thing left to do now is stop the flood from getting out of this lab."

"Actually master, the Flood is already working on getting out of the lab. They've bypassed multiple security controls already. In fact my ability to remote control many of the facilities functions. Including the sentinel controls."

"Sentinel controls?" Dune asked.

"Yes, the controls for the sentinel defense robots. They are armed with high-heat beams that are capable of easily destroying the flood," the keeper responded.

"So what you're telling me is you have a defense system but you can't activate it by yourself?" Ian interjected.

"That's hat I'm trying to communicate, master," the Keeper replied.

"Well that's pretty simple," Ian said heading towards what appeared to be the nearest computer console, "Where are the controls."

"In a different sector of the compound I'm afraid," the Keeper responded.

"A different sector?" Ian asked in disbelief.

"Yes, in fact a decent distance from this location. The remote network is down, thusly why I cannot remotely activate the sentinel controls. The only way to activate them is to access them directly from their direct access terminal." the Keeper stated

"So all we have to do is leisurely traipse through a few dozen corridors filled to the brim with parasitic life-forms vying to infest us and use us to escape and destroy all living things," Ian said exasperated.

"One would hope you would do more than wander aimlessly master. One would hope you would go directly to the controls with weapons in hand using them as you went. Such actions would result in much fewer casualties," the Keeper replied.

"I was," Ian started before being cut off.

"So where is this terminal?" Dune interrupted.

"I can lead you master," The keeper replied, "This way."

The Keeper floated towards a wall but as he did the solid wall cracked open to reveal a door. Suddenly as the door cracked two small green blobs managed to squirm into the room.

"Oh dear," the Keeper said.

"Close the door!" Dune shouted opening fire on the two small blobs.

All of the helljumpers did the same as the two blobs bounced about the room. The door to the room sealed with the sound of suction but before it could five more blobs had managed to crawl inside.

"Don't let them get too close!" Dune yelled over the now ear shattering gunfire.

Just as he let out his order two of his rounds found their way through one of the Flood infection forms in the room, causing it and the two near it to burst into green goo across the floor. Suddenly three of the remaining flood launched themselves at Davis' back.

"Look out!" Giles shouted as plasma fire from her rifle found the lead infection form and caused the two around it to combust.

"Got em!" Rick shouted as he stomped one of the remaining flood.

"Got the last one," Mike said as he sent a magnum round through the remaining infection form.

"My sensors must be damaged. I had no idea they had gotten so far into the installation already," the Keeper said in a cheerful tone.

"Ya think?" Davis said wiping pieces of infection form from her hair.

"This is going to be fun," Dune said reloading his battle rifle, "real fun."


	16. Thats One You Never Thought You'd See

Location Unknown

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

The Keeper floated ahead humming what one would assume would have sounded like elevator music to the people who created him. Of course, that's if one could hear the humming above all of the gunfire from the helljumpers who followed him.

"They don't stop coming!" Rick shouted.

"Then stop whining and shoot them!" Mike yelled while firing one of Rick's SMG's wildly into the horde or infection forms cascading in behind them.

"Ahead!" Dune yelled firing into a wave of infection forms that was forming in front of them.

"Got em!" Allison yelled as she turned and fired into the group until her plasma rifle overheated.

"This way," the Keeper said cheerfully with a volume that was heard even over the gunfire.

The Keeper took a corner and floated through a now open door. Firing into the Flood all around them, the ODST team followed hot on his tail. The door closed behind them, cutting off the surge of Flood behind and crushing a few who had managed to catch up that far with a popping sound.

"So this is the sentinel control room," Dune said putting his hands on his knees and catching his breath.

"Indeed so master," the Keeper replied.

"Kind of strikes me as odd that it's so poorly guarded if they already got close enough to disable it," Davis said.

"Love, they disconnected the network, not the actual console, this area probably hasn't been reached yet," Ian said.

Davis turned and leveled her battle rifle at Ian's face.

"Call me that again," she said putting her finger on the trigger and pulling slightly while lower her barrel to his crotch, "and you're not going to have anything to reach for at night."

Ian backed away carefully whimpering.

"All that aside, how do we activate it?" Dune asked walking up the console.

"Merely input the commands to open the shutters and deploy the sentinels," the Keeper said.

"So I guess it's this," Dune said pressed a few buttons.

Suddenly two metal shutters on the ceiling opened with a creaking sound.

"Well that was ominous," Allison said.

"So now just this I guess," Dune said hitting a few more buttons.

As he hit the buttons wreckage began to fall from the openings in the ceiling.

"Odd," the Keeper said floating around the twisted bits of metal.

"Those are the sentinels?" Rick said.

"So it seems," Dune said.

"Fat load of good they do us now!" Ian yelled.

"What the hell was that?" Davis asked looking around.

"What the hell was what?" Dune said looking at her.

"That," she replied, "Do you hear it?"

"That what?" Mike asked.

Everyone was quiet and listened as closely as they could, then they heard it, a series of crashing sounds, too quiet to hear, but getting louder and closer together.

"Yeah, I hear it now. What is it?" Ian asked.

"Quiet," Dune hissed, "It's above us."

All the helljumpers looked up at the openings in the ceiling. The crashing sound grew louder until it finally stopped.

"What the hell," Dune was cut off as a large creature with slimy white fur mixed with bulbous green tumors landed in a heap in front of them.

They all backed up and pointed their guns at the now rising lump of fur and flesh.

"Steady," Dune ordered quietly.

The creature got to its full height, standing well over the height of the average elite. As it reached the apex of its height it arched itself backwards and let out a loud and half gurgled roar.

"Fire!" Dune yelled while pulling the trigger of his own weapon.

Suddenly the once quiet room erupted into the sounds of gunfire as the creature charged forward at one of the surrounding helljumpers. Rick leapt out of the way and hit the ground hard, narrowly avoiding being hit full force by the charging mass. The bullets hitting the creature seemed to merely be absorbed into the flesh, and doing almost no damage.

"Dammit, this isn't working!" Shayla yelled over the gunfire.

Suddenly the creature spun and charged at Mike, Flynn, and Giles. All three dove out of the way, but the charging creature managed to hit Ian's leg. A cracking noise was drown out by the sound of gunfire as Ian spun and landed hard on the ground.

"Aim for the legs!" Dune yelled.

As the order left Dune's lips the creature crashed into the wall leaving a large dent and pausing just long enough for Dune, Rick, and Shayla to open fire on the creatures legs, causing it to lose balance and stay stationary a moment longer. That moment proved to be long enough for Mike and Allison to recover and open fire on the creature's legs, finally doing enough damage to get it to crumple to the ground.

"Light it up!" Dune ordered as he prepped and tossed a grenade at the creature.

As his grenade landed next to the creature, so did two other frag grenades and a plasma grenade. The creature began to push itself up with its forearms. All the helljumpers opened fire at the creature at once, causing it to fall back to the ground just in time to be engulfed in the explosions of the grenades. As the smoke cleared all that was left was a mass of dead flesh that barely resembled the creature that has originally dropped from the ceiling.

"Finally," Rick said dropping to his knees and cradling is broken ribs.

"What the hell was that?" Dune yelled.

"It seems that one of the species that breached security was infected by the flood."

"That must've been the brute that came in with the prophet," Dune said sitting down.

"That was a brute?" Giles said, "Damn, I was expecting more."

She fired off a few shots into the corpse of the infected brute.

"Stop that we're going to need the ammo," Dune said.

"What do you mean?" Davis asked, "What's left to do? The sentinels were supposed to stop them, how do we stop them now?"

"We're going to have to stop them any way we can," Dune responded exhausted, "Any ideas Keeper?"

"The only option left, master, is to destroy the entire installation with the self-destruct function," the Keeper responded.

"Is there a timer on that?" Dune asked.

"Yes."

"You have remote access?"

"I'm sorry master, but I don't."

"Is there a console for it?"

"Yes."

"Then it's pretty simple," Dune finished.

"Wait, I'm lost," Rick said.

"Simple," Flynn said then screamed in pain as Davis reset his broken leg. "We get the Keeper to take us to the console," He finished breathing hard from the pain.

"And we go up with the place?" Rick asked.

"No, we set the timer and escape in the ship," Dune said.

"That's a dangerous plan," Davis said tying off Ian's makeshift cast.

"If you have any better ideas I'd like to hear em," Dune replied.

"None."

"Then patch up Rick and lets go," Dune said leaning back against the sentinel control console, "we don't have all day."


	17. A 12 Pack, a Trampoline, and a Bad Idea

Location Unknown

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

"Alright," Davis said finally, "They're all patched up and we're good to go."

"Good," Dune replied and then looked around.

Aside from himself and Davis, all of his team now had some large injury or another. Mike's arm was incapacitated, as was Allison's. Ian's leg was snapped from the infested brute slamming into him, and Rick had two broken ribs and a series of bruised ones.

"Well, we're one sorry group of soldiers," Dune sighed to himself.

"To be fair," Davis said sitting next to him, "considering what we've been through since we departed from the Malta, I'd say the fact that the group has no casualties is somewhat of an accomplishment."

"But there have been casualties," Dune said rubbing his eyes, "just not us."

Dune lowered his head for a moment to meditate on his thoughts.

"Keeper," he said looking at the floating hunk of metal.

"Yes master?" it said floating back to him.

"How close is the self-destruct console from here?" Dune asked in a near whisper.

"Not far, just a few corridors away, though such a distance would still be difficult to cross with the flood impeding your progress," the Keeper replied, it's volume matching Dune's.

"Is the exit from the lab close?"

"The closest exit is through the Flood habitat."

"As in where you keep the Flood?"

"Yes."

"Well that's out," Dune said sighing, "Any other ways out of here?"

"The only other exit in this sector is the emergency escape room, which we passed on our way here."

"Great."

Dune leaned his head back to touch the console he was leaning against again and closed his eyes.

"Could this room be made impossible for entry from the Flood?"

"Quite possibly, but that would only stop the Flood for a limited period of time and would also involve shutting off the air supply to this room and consequently leaving anyone inside with only approximately two days worth of breathable air, assuming all of you were to stay inside the room. Of course that's only a factor assuming the flood don't,"

"How long would that Flood-proof the room for?" Dune asked, looking at the Keeper and cutting off him mid-speech.

"A few hours at most," the Keeper responded, in a slightly annoyed tone.

"How would we go about locking down the room?"

"One would only have to close the shutters in the ceiling then go about locking the door from the same console."

"Alright," Dune said sighing and standing up, "I guess it's action time then."

"Wait," Shayla said getting ready to stand up behind him, "What are you thinking?"

Dune just held his open hand back, showing his palm to her, cutting her off and making her stop moving.

"Don't worry," he said, "We're getting out of here alive."

Dune walked into the middle of the room and turned to his beaten and broken team. He looked them over once and shook his head.

"For a bunch of people who signed up to kill themselves in this job, we've done a piss-poor job of dying," he said.

This prompted a laugh from them all.

"Sadly, we haven't done a great job of keeping ourselves alive either. We're definitely not in decent enough condition to reach the self-destruct button in one piece."

"What are you talking about, of course we are!" Rick said starting to stand.

Suddenly Rick fell back to the ground, cradling his ribs and coughing.

"Thank you for proving my point Hunt, now sit down," Dune said shaking his head. "There's no way we're going to make it to our objective as a group, so we're going to have to leave some people here."

"Leave people behind?" Ian yelled.

"No, we're going to lock down the room then group A will go to the switch while group B guards the rear."

"So group B is gonna be the gimps," Allison said in an angry tone.

"So who's in what group?" Mike asked, cutting her off.

"Well, Davis and I being the only two of 100 able body will be in group A and Wolowicz, you're with us. The rest of you will be group B," Dune said trying to use the most authority he could manage. "The plan is you guard the escape route while we go set the timer. We'll be using an emergency escape room that we passed on the way here to get out once the place is set to go. If we're not back in two hours, you're to go find it and get out of here yourselves. Once you're out you're to assume we failed, get to the ship and escape with anyone you can and use whatever munitions are left on the _Meridian_ to blow this place to hell. Understood?"

Everyone nodded somberly.

"Watch your ammo, we don't have a lot left and we need to stretch it for as long as we can," Dune said walking to the control console.

He punched a few buttons on the console and the shutters in the ceiling closed with the sound of vacuums sealing the doors shut. With a few more buttons the vents closed with a similar sound. Dune walked to the door.

"Let's go."

Shayla and Mike got up and walked over behind Dune silently. Everyone in the room wore the same expression. They all knew that this was the point of no return. From this point on, there wasn't a lot of hope left.

"Remember," Dune said placing his hand on the door controls, "feet first."

With that Dune pressed the controls and readied his rifle.


	18. A Really Bad Idea

After finishing Halo: Ghost of Onyx by Eric Nylund I couldn't help but be moved by one of my writing idols' greatest works yet. I started this story back before the 360 had come out, yet talk of it over-abounded in all mediums among Halo fans and X-Box lovers alike. There was no question that the next Halo game was going to be the greatest thing since _Half-Life_ and there was one hope on my, and every other Halo fans' collective hearts. Where was the next book? When my local source of Halo information and friend told me about Ghosts of Onyx I was overjoyed to no end and I couldn't help but look forward to reading it. When I found out Nylund was the author I about passed out from the joy stirring inside my mind. It was no wonder that when I picked up the book it took prominence on my "to read" list. Now that I've finished it I almost wonder if Nylund was reading my humble step into the Halo world. The similarities between the ancient forerunner construct I had envisioned and the world of Onyx made me wonder if I had gleaned into the future when I thought up my, at the time, revolutionary idea. If nothing else, this has inspired me to hurry up and finish _Heroes_ because I now feel what you all feel, anticipation. What happens next? How does it happen? Why does it happen? All I can say is, I have been a terrible person to all of my readers making them wait so long. If I even have any dedicated readers left, I'm sorry for my break, and I hope you find the next few chapters to be satisfactory enough to make up for them being so delayed.

"The Fleet Master Elite snarled at Kurt, and the translation filtered through his helmet's speaker: _'One last fight, demon. You shall die and we shall reopen the silver path.'_

'Die?' Kurt laughed. 'Didn't you know?' he told the Elite. '…Spartans never die.'"

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx 

By Eric Nylund

Location Unknown

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

Dune ran down the corridor firing his battle rifle at everything that moved. He could hear the sound of gunfire from behind him. During this nightmarish jaunt through the hell that was the alien construct he had learned that his only solace while navigating these corridors that as long as there was gunfire behind him, his team was still alive. This mission has truly been a nightmare.

"Just a bit further master," the keeper said, floating in front of Dune, wispily bobbing and weaving around attacking infection forms.

Dune felt something latch onto his ankle and he kicked hard. The infection form that had attached itself to his shin was sent flying before it could attach itself permanently. It flew a few meters and then landed on top of its fellow infection forms, combusting into bits of green that stuck to the walls. Dune continued to run full speed down the corridor, blasting as many of the onslaught of green bulbs as he could.

"Just in here master." Suddenly the keeper stopped in place and a door slid open just long enough for him and Dune's small three-man group to slip inside.

The door slid shut almost instantly after Mike had gotten through the door, killing a few infection forms and splattering their remains on the wall. Dune, Wolowicz, and Davis didn't stop. They continued to fire and run until they had spun around and killed every last infection form that had followed them into the room. After the last green blob had been stopped the helljumers spun about wildly looking for contacts until they realized there were none left.

"About damn time," Wolowicz said collapsing onto his knees on the flood-spattered ground.

Dune shared Mike's sentiment but didn't voice it. It had been a long night since they had been teleported into this nightmare, and trying to keep the Flood from turning them into mutated monsters was taking its toll quickly. Dune had his doubts that even a Spartan could keep this up as long as they had. Luck was with them for now, but he didn't know how long it would last. When it ran out he wanted to be far away from this place and these creatures.

"How's your shoulder Mike?" Shayla asked looking at the panting helljumper.

"Fine," Mike replied, out of breath.

"How about you Sir?" she asked turning to Dune.

"I'm fine," Dune replied. "Keeper, where is the control panel?"

"Over here master," The Keeper said, floating towards a door panel. "I must deactivate the security lockouts. This may take a few moments."

"Alright," Dune said turning away from the Keeper and the door and back to his helljumpers, crouching near them. "Alright, we set it to about 3 hours and then destroy the console to keep the flood from stopping us, that should give us enough time to get,"

Dune was cut off by the Keeper's computer generated voice.

"Master the door is ready to open."

"So open it," Dune replied in a tired tone.

He was sick of this AI already. It had proved to be useful as a guide, but not as much else. The door behind Dune slid open and suddenly an odd growling sound fill the room followed by an almost gargled Elite-style yell. Dune spun around just in time to roll out of the way of an infested Elite combat-form crashing down where he had just been crouched. Dune spun to the door to see a sea of Flood pouring into the room.

"Close the door!" Dune yelled.

Suddenly the door slammed shut, but it was too late. The room became a storm of deformed bodies flying about, green blobs bouncing towards the living, and helljumpers jumping, rolling, and firing to the best of their abilities to stay alive. Before long the flood horde that had found its way into the room thinned. Dune dove backward out of the way of an elite combat form, firing his battle rifle into the creature's abdomen. The combat form fell back and landed on top of a small gaggle of infection forms, causing them to explode under the pressure of the falling body. By the time Dune got to stand he saw the horrifying image of another infection form writhing its way into the fallen combat form's chest and making the battered, mutated, and destroyed body once again stand and strike out at the horrified and prone helljumper. Suddenly three battle rifle rounds penetrated the combat form's head, causing it to fall off and slowing the deformed figure just long enough for Dune to scramble away.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Mike yelled.

"I the 'brain' is in the chest. Shoot there!" Dune yelled back, standing and firing into the chest of the deformed Elite, once again mercifully ending its life.

Davis, Dune, and Wolowicz finished off the remaining Flood, leaving the corpses of three Elite combat forms and the sprayed remains of countless infection forms spatter about the walls.

"So what now?" Wolowicz said, "We're cut off from the self-destruct console."

"Keeper," Dune said looking deep in thought, "how does the self-destruct console work?"

"After the Forerunners decided to go with their sword and shield operation this lab, which was retrofitted to study the Flood after the species was discovered, was rigged with certain upgraded devices. The self-destruct device was one of the upgraded consoles. You merely need to tell me the amount of time you wish to elapse between activation and detonation and I will provide you with the activation key. This key merely needs to be inserted into the console by one of you, as I cannot insert it as a safeguard against sabotage or flood tampering, and it will activate."

Dune looked to the floor and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Things kept getting more and more complicated and he liked it less and less as time went on. There was only one choice though.

"Keeper, set the timer to three hours," Dune said still nursing his headache.

"Three of your hours, understood Master," the Keeper replied. Suddenly, out of the structure floating around the Keeper's main sphere, slid a glowing green cylinder.

Dune reached up and took it.

"What are you thinking?" Davis said in a nervous tone.

"This can't be let out. We have to stop it at all costs," Dune replied almost coldly. "Keeper, get ready to open the door again on my mark.

"You're joking…" Wolowicz said in disbelief.

"Sir you can't!" Davis yelled.

"I have to."

"No, someone has to," Wolowicz said stepping up, "I'm injured already, it won't be that much of a loss."

"Stand back Corporal." Dune barked. "Davis can't because you all need a medic, and you can't because even the slightest injury could prove crucial in this. You just got your arm back to working at all, it's not healed yet by any means and it could prove to be a liability, which can't be afforded."

Dune dropped his battle rifle and pulled out his pistol.

"Take that, you'll need the ammo on the way out. Wolowicz, you're in charge."

"But they'll get you and could get the plan," Shayla protested, finding any way she could to stop him.

Dune grabbed a plasma grenade of his strap and left the belt and the few remaining for his team.

"I have to," Dune said looking back just once then glancing ahead again.

"No!" Shayla yelled running ahead.

Wolowicz stopped her as best he could, his back to Dune.

"Let go!" She yelled again.

Wolowicz didn't even glance at Dune.

"Give em hell," he said.

"Yeah," Dune replied, "Feet first. Open the door."

The door slid open, and with that Dune was gone.

-

Inside the self-destruct platform room Dune fired his pistol rapidly, destroying as many of the attacking Flood as possible. He felt the infection forms latching onto him, penetrating his skin and numbing pieces of his body. He forced himself on through the hell of flying bulbous creatures all vying for their chance to take him as host. He kicked hard through the knee deep infection forms finally getting to the console. With one large downward movement he thrust the key into its slot and the machine activated. He primed and set the plasma grenade on the console and dove backward into the flood. The explosion rolled over the crowded room and destroyed many of the infection forms, giving Dune a single chance to stand. He took it and got up just in time to feel an infection form latch onto his neck. He felt the needle slide into his neck, past his vertebrae, and into his spinal column. His vision blurred and he knew what was coming. Tears began to stream down the hardened ODST sergeant's face.

"I'm sorry that I was so cold," he started, cut off as his mouth went numb.

_I love you too._ He thought as he lifted the pistol with one shot left in his limp arm.

_I love you too, Shayla._

A gunshot was heard and with it, Sergeant Arthur Dune died.


	19. I Think We Should be Leaving Now

Location Unknown

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

The door slid shut.

"No! Mike let me go! We can still save him!" Davis yelled as she struggled against Mike's arms.

Mike just stood there, holding Shayla back. His eyes were clouded over. He would never let himself cry. Men didn't cry. It was something he had told himself since he was little and his parents had died in a Covenant bombardment. Men didn't cry, and he was going to be a man. But he wanted to.

A thump resounded through the door.

Dune has been his friend for a long while. He would never admit it, he had almost felt like Dune was a father figure to him. He was only a few years older, but it didn't matter. Dune had taken him in as a recruit and specially asked for him on his team. Letting him down wasn't something he could do. He had to push on.

A muffled gunshot sounded and then silenced in less than a moment.

"Davis, stop," Mike said with what little authority he could muster.

Shayla collapsed into Mike's arms, crying.

"He's dead," she sobbed.

"I know, but we have to push on, for him. He died to keep us alive."

"But there were other options!"

"Maybe, but this was the only sure way."

"No it wasn't!"

"It was what he wanted."

"Masters, I just received the signal indicating that the self destruct system is activating," the Keeper interrupted.

Mike pulled Shayla back from him.

"We have to move on, or his death was in vain," he said coldly, staring into her eyes.

His voice was cold and authoritative, but his eyes said a different story. Looking into his clouded eyes, she could see how he felt. She knew she wasn't the only one who was going to miss Dune.

"Ok," Davis said choking back her tears. "Let's go."

Mike let her go and walked over and picked up the battle rifle clips and grenades Dune had left behind. He walked to the door. The Keeper floated to the door as well, now following Wolowicz as it had once followed Dune. Davis walked to the door next to Mike. When he had looked into her eyes she had seen one other thing as well, one other thing that gave her hope.

"Let's go."

With that the door slid open and the two helljumpers ran out, guns blazing at the Flood who infested the narrow halls of the complex. Time seemed to blur with gunshots and before long Davis and Wolowicz stood outside the door to the sentinel control room.

"Open the door!" Wolowicz shouted into his radio to his fellow ODST's.

The door opened and in bounded Mike and Shayla, the Keeper and a horde of Flood in tow. All the helljumpers opened fire, stemming the onslaught of Flood.

"Close the door!" Mike yelled.

"But what about…" Ian started, his hand hovering over the lockdown button on the console.

"Now!" Mike yelled.

Ian hit the button and as it slid shut the Flood who had followed into the room were methodically turned into greed goo.

"Now where is…" Giles started as all the helljumpers stood staring at Mike and Shayla.

"Dead." Shayla said, cutting Giles off. "He plunged into a room full of Flood in order to turn on the self-destruct switch and died in that room."

She finished, tears flowing silently down her cheeks. Mike, staring at the floor.

"I'm in charge now," Mike said without looking up.

The other helljumpers stood in various states of disbelief.

"But," Rick started, tears welling in his eyes.

"We're moving out." Mike said, almost yelling. "We have to keep moving or his sacrifice was in vain. I'll give you a full debriefing on our way back to earth, but until then, we're leaving, now!"

All the helljumpers nodded slowly.

"Alright, let's go."

Mike walked to the door steadily, struggling to keep the level of authority he was showing.

"Open the door."

Ian hit the lockdown button again, effectively ending the lockdown of the room and the door slid open. Mike ran out and began firing down the hall at the amassing Flood. Before long the other helljumpers ran out and began firing along side him, the last one out the door, being Shayla, taking a moment to wipe her tears before following. The group ran down the corridors, firing and running, choking back tears and trying to keep their minds on the mission to avoid thinking about their fallen CO. Before long they found themselves dashing into an open door to the relative safety of the emergency escape room. The door slid shut and the flood who had entered were quickly mopped up.

"So how do we get out?" Mike said looking around and seeing no exit.

The room was small, barely fitting all of the helljumpers and the Keeper. In the center was a single metal sculpture with a gem in the center.

"Matter transportation by translocation device, master."

"What?" Rick said scratching his head.

"I think I get it," Mike said. "How close can you get us to Alpha Drop?"

"Your settlement?" The Keeper asked.

His glowing eye flickered as if processing.

"The translocation system runs through the whole laboratory. It would be possible for me to transport you to any point in your settlement."

"Put us right in the middle of it then," Mike said. "That should get everyone's attention when we make our entrance, and it should be far enough into camp that we won't be caught in the crossfire. First priority is to get in contact with Captain North and start an evac."

Mike turned to the Keeper.

"How much time do we have left?"

"Two hours and fifteen minutes, your time," the Keeper responded.

"Everyone set timers," Mike ordered.

All the ODSTs went about setting their timers on their HUD, then looking at Mike when they finished.

"Alright," he said, "teleport us."

With a bright flash of light from the gem in the sculpture all the ODSTs disappeared one at a time into white light.

-

Mike rolled over, his head splitting, his eyes blurred and seeing nothing but white.

"Sir. Sir are you ok?" an unfamiliar voice called.

Mike blinked a few times and cleared his eyes. The white that overtook his senses slowly cleared and burs began to form, soon turning to the face of a private first class.

"Sir?"

Mike shot up.

"Where's the command tent?" Mike asked hurriedly.

"Just over there," the private replied confused.

"Take care of them!" Mike yelled over his shoulder as he ran into the tent.

Mike looked around for a second and felt a moment of sadness, seeing Dune's footlocker. He glanced at his heads up display. He had been out for fifteen minutes, only two hours left. He ran to the console at the desk and hit a button. The screen flickered on and Captain North's face stared back at him.

"This is a command only channel Corporal, this had better be good. Where's Dune?"

"He's dead," he paused, "and we're all going to be too if we don't evacuate now."


	20. Where Men Die and Legends Are Born

Alpha Drop – Temporary Waypoint

Unknown Alien Structure

Coordinates Unknown

Mike looked around.

The Covenant force had long since been wiped out. It hadn't felt like it, but their jaunt down into the inner workings of the lab had been hours long, more than enough time to finish off the diminishing Covenant attack group. Without their Prophet, they fought in classic Covenant style, to the last soldier, and none had been captured, opting for death in battle over capture and humiliation.

Mike could hear the pelicans taking off behind him. It hadn't been more than a few hours ago that he was running for his life, his commanding officer still alive, his comrades treating him like an equal, instead of a CO. Dune's death had taken its toll on the whole team, but his sacrifice saved not only his team but everyone still left alive on this godforsaken asteroid. Mike couldn't help but wonder what had gone through Dune's mind as he entered that door, knowing his eminent death was all that awaited him. How had he been able to face it so calmly? Could he do the same in the face of such a decision? It wasn't something he wanted to think about. Yeah, he offered to sacrifice himself in Dune's place, but that wasn't out of the selflessness he had done it out of. Sergeant Arthur Dune had sacrificed himself in order to save every UNSC marine and naval officer here. Mike was going to do it out of greed. He knew that as he thought over it. It wasn't selflessness to save Dune that drove him, it was greed and selfishness. He wanted Dune to be alive because he didn't want to see him die. Dune was almost his father, and it wasn't right that this was another father taken from him by another alien force. It wasn't right for Dune to leave command of this place on his shoulders either. Dune should be alive now. It should've been him that died in that room, not Dune.

"Sir," Shayla said softly coming up behind Mike and disturbing his thoughts. "The pelican taking us back to the _Meridian_ is here. Everyone else has evacuated already. We're all that's left."

"Alright," Mike said, his eyes never deviating from the pyramid shaped structure in the middle of the asteroid. "You go ahead, I'll be there in a moment."

There were Covenant bodies littering the ground. Normally that many dead Covenant would've been considered a victory for the UNSC, but today it didn't feel like it. He stared through the structure, straight to the room where Dune last stood, looking forward through the door to his fate, never looking back.

"Alright you bastard," Mike whispered, "feet first."

"Yo, hurry it up!" Rick yelled. "We only got 25 minutes left!"

Mike turned around and started walking towards the pelican. As he did he saw the whole team sitting in the open door. Shayla sat, tending Allison's shoulder. Allison looked out the door, mouthing the words, "hurry or I'll burn you." Rick sat waving his SMG in the air as Ian screamed profanities at a console. Mike hopped up into the pelican, taking a seat next to Rick and signaling to the pilot to take off. As the pelican rose Mike could see the ground shrink beneath him through the slowly closing door. He felt relief to be getting off of that nightmare in the form of a rock once and for all, but at the same time he felt as though he left something behind, something irreplaceable. Soon the door closed completely and the sound of the door sealing and the cabin pressurizing overtook the sounds of the engines for a moment then returning to normal levels.

"This is it, huh?" Ian said angrily. "Going back home now will almost seem pointless. We weren't able to get the Prophet, the ship, or the asteroid, not that we want the damn thing anymore."

"Going home is the point Flynn," Shayla said coldly.

"We killed a few Covies though," Allison interjected.

"More than a few," Rick chuckled. I don't think there's a spot on that place not covered in purple or blue blood."

Mike glanced both at Allison and Rick, then at Shayla. As was to be expected, she looked at the floor, tears slowly streaming. Mike knew how she felt, and he felt it too. They all felt it, but they all had their own ways of coping with it. No matter how much may or may not have been accomplished, it wasn't worth Dune. The ride continued, on in moderate silence. Allison and Rick exchanged stories of brutal and disturbing ways of killing Covenant as Ian looked away in disgust. Shayla was silent, her crying had ceased and she now sat staring at the floor. Mike just looked at the bulkhead. His thoughts just kept straying to what had happened, and how it affected what was to come.

It wasn't long before they all exited the pelican into a cargo hold on the _Prime Meridian_. They instantly recognized it as the bay which they had fought the Covenant in before this whole nightmare had begun.

"Sir," a corporal said walking up to Mike.

"You don't have to sir me, we're the same rank." Mike said, audibly tired of the constant respect he seemed to have earned.

"Sorry," the corporal replied, "Captain North wants you on the bridge, she asked that you bring the whole group."

"Alright," Mike replied looking at the team. "Common, we're going to the bridge," he yelled.

"Already?" Ian whined.

"Move it Flynn," Allison snapped as she grabbed him and began dragging.

The team walked through the corridors, glancing occasionally at bullet holes, burn marks, and bloodstains from the fighting that had been happening on the ship not but a few days ago. Before long they found themselves walking through the door to the small bridge area. They all stood before Captain North, saluting.

"At ease," she replied, snapping a tired salute.

They all relaxed. Mike looked at the screen in front of him, displaying the asteroid as it slowly began to shrink.

"Sorry to bring you up here all battered and bruised with no time to rest, but I hear you have quite the tale to tell," North said looking over the broken and bruised helljumpers. "So who's going to tell it?"

The helljumpers all remained silent, their eyes all turning to Mike. He looked out the screen one last time, looking squarely at the large structure in the middle of the asteroid that soon vanished from sight. His mind once again wandered to Dune. What has his thoughts been, knowing he was going to die?

"Well, sir, I suppose it starts when Sergeant Dune ordered us to follow the Prophet…"

As Mike told the story Shayla finally figured out what the other thing she saw in Mike's eyes had been. She had seen Dune.

Suddenly the bridge filled with a brilliant white light, cutting Mike's story off as everyone present stopped and looked at the screen. The forerunner structure suddenly began to glow white hot, then began to crumple in on itself, as it became a controlled black hole, just big enough to draw the laboratory asteroid and the Covenant ghost-ship that hovered above it into nothingness, then collapsing in on itself, disappearing.

"Goodbye," Shayla whispered, as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Alright," Captain North said turning back around. "Now where were we?"

-

Dune looked at the door, Shayla screaming behind him, Mike holding her back as best he could. His mind flashed back to Corporal Weller. He had to stop this senseless killing. Someone had to stop all these young men from dying, fighting a force they couldn't stop. Dune couldn't do much, he was only human, not a Spartan. What he could do, though, was stop more people from dying on this asteroid. Dying thousands of light years from home.

"Give em hell," Mike said.

"Yeah," he said, "Feet first."

Dune steeled himself. He kept that thought of Mike in his head, the fire that had been in Mike's eyes. That fire was why he would die for his team. It was what had solidified the idea in his mind. There were probably other options but they were risky. His team could get hurt. This was the only way to save them all. Mike would be able to get them out. He could see it. Mike was ready to do the same thing he was about to do. Mike would be able to save everyone.

"Open the door."

Fin


End file.
